On Wednesday, the European Space Agency (ESA) will see its most ambitious mission reach a climax. After a 10 year journey and three months orbiting the comet known as Comet 67P, the Rosetta spacecraft will detach its Philae lander and attempt to put it on the comet.

If the landing is successful it could reveal a great deal, not only about comets but about the creation of the solar system. It is believed that collisions between comets similar to 67P played a role in the formation of the planets, but no such comet has been examined up close.  If the landing is unsuccessful it would be a devastating blow to researchers who have devoted a large portion of their careers to the effort.

The “How to Land on a Comet” video from Science@NASA describes the maneuver as “ridiculously difficult”.

“How hard is this landing? Consider this: The comet will be moving 40 times faster than a speeding bullet, spinning, shooting out gas and welcoming Rosetta on the surface with boulders, cracks, scarps and possibly meters of dust,” said Art Chielewski, the US Rosetta project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

While most news networks will probably provide updates on the attempt, NASA and the ESA are both planning live webcasts of the attempt beginning tomorrow (Tuesday, November 11).

NASA TV, at nasa.gov/nasatv will carry excerpts of the ESA coverage from 9 until 10 am and 10 until 11:30 am on Wednesday, according to EarthSky.  The ESA site already has regular blog updates and information about the Rosetta mission. The live coverage of the event at esa.int/rosetta will begin at 2 pm EST on Tuesday. Regular updates on the mission are also available from the official Rosetta Twitter account @ESA_Rosetta. 

If all goes according to plan, the 46 pound Philae lander will be able to start sending back a wide variety of data about the composition of the comet. The probes science package includes a alpha-proton-X-ray spectrometer, two gas chromatograph/mass spectrometers and a variety of other equipment. It also contains the Cometary Sampling and Composition Experiment (COSAC) and MODULUS/Ptolemy also known as the “Methods Of Determining and Understanding Light elements from Unequivocal Stable isotope compositions”.

Additional information about the lander and a timeline for Wednesday’s events can be found on the ESA website.