comet chasing

last week has been quite eventful for people following space vehicle launches: first there was the maiden flight of the russian angara 1.2 (the member of a proposed modular launch system that could replace most russian space vehicles - they've been working on this since the 90s), then the flawless launch of a cygnus resupply craft for the iss on top of an antares rocket and, last monday, another successful falcon 9 launch and a soft landing of the first stage in the ocean (slowly paving the way for a truly reusable launch system).

so i had decided to post about an event here in vaasa from last may. to celebrate the rosetta spaceprobe's arrival in the vicinity of its target, comet 67p, after a 10-year-long journey, an exhibition-truck as been touring the nordic countries.

tibi + 1:4 scale replica of rosetta

the goal is to raise public awareness, educate the people and highlight the importance of this historic mission (the first soft landing on the surface of a comet) and of course the contributions of the nordic countries to this esa mission. i myself have visited the truck together with some highschoolers and their physics teacher. the truck contained 1:4 scale replicas of the rosetta probe and the smaller lander, philae as well as digital presentations of the launch and the long and exciting journey, fliers and various promotional materials and a friendly staff ready to answer your questions.

if you are interested in reading more about the mission (and you should be), visit the official website. it is particularly interesting to read about the scientific payload carried by the probe & lander. among many other things, rosetta has an atomic force microscope for characterizing dust particles in the comet's tail, with a spatial resolution of 4nm. another interesting experiment, named consert (comet nucleus sounding experiment by radiowave transmission), involves the lander on the surface and the orbiting probe sending radio waves back and forth to each other through the comet to gain information about the inner structure. it is really interesting, check out the website!

rosetta hits the road