Countdown Begins: Rosetta’s Philae probe is set to make the first-ever landing on a Comet!

As the Rosetta Mission's is getting closer to the most crucial part of the mission, i.e. landing on the comet 67P/ C-G, we, Nepal Astronomical Society (NASO), are working with media to take this greatest event of space exploration to the public as much as possible. We would like to thank the ESA TV team and EuroVision Team for the information which we managed to convey to the TV channels to explore the possibility of taking this event to every household via Nepal Television and Avenues Television.

Rosetta is a cornerstone mission to chase, go into orbit around, and land on a comet. It is studying the Jupiter-family comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko with a combination of remote sensing and in situ measurements. The spacecraft arrived at the comet on 6 August 2014 following a 10-year journey through the Solar System. Between August and November, the spacecraft has been orbiting the comet and gathering data to characterise the environment and the comet nucleus. On 12 November 2014, Rosetta's lander Philae will be deployed to the surface. Philae carries a suite of instruments for imaging and sampling the comet nucleus. The Rosetta orbiter will track the comet through perihelion (August 2015), examining its behavior before, during and after.

Here's the timeline for the Rosetta Mission reflecting accomplished works as well as remaining part of the mission:

Event	Nominal date
Launch	2 March 2004
First Earth gravity assist	4 March 2005
Mars gravity assist	25 February 2007
Second Earth gravity assist	13 November 2007
Asteroid Steins flyby	5 September 2008
Third Earth gravity assist	13 November 2009
Asteroid Lutetia flyby	10 July 2010
Enter deep space hibernation	8 June 2011
Exit deep space hibernation	20 January 2014
Rendezvous manoeuvres begin	7 May 2014
Arrive at comet	6 August 2014
Start global mapping	10 September 2014
Lander delivery	12 November 2014
Perihelion passage	13 August 2015
End of mission	31 December 2015

The objectives of the missions are:

• To study the origin of comets, the relationship between cometary and interstellar material, and its implications with regard to the origin of the Solar System. The measurements to be made to achieve this are:
• Global characterisation of the nucleus, determination of dynamic properties, surface morphology and composition;
• Determination of the chemical, mineralogical and isotopic compositions of volatiles and refractories in a cometary nucleus;
• Determination of the physical properties and interrelation of volatiles and refractories in a cometary nucleus;
• Study of the development of cometary activity and the processes in the surface layer of the nucleus and the inner coma (dust/gas interaction);
• Global characterisation of asteroids, including determination of dynamic properties, surface morphology and composition.

There are altogether 21 instruments as mentioned below:

THE ROSETTA ORBITER (11 SCIENCE INSTRUMENT PACKAGES)

Alice	Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer
CONSERT	Comet Nucleus Sounding Experiment by Radio wave Transmission
COSIMA	Cometary Secondary Ion Mass Analyser
GIADA	Grain Impact Analyser and Dust Accumulator
MIDAS	Micro-Imaging Dust Analysis System
MIRO	Microwave Instrument for the Rosetta Orbiter
OSIRIS	Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System
ROSINA	Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis
RPC	Rosetta Plasma Consortium
RSI	Radio Science Investigation
VIRTIS	Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer

THE ROSETTA LANDER (10 SCIENCE INSTRUMENT PACKAGES)

APXS	Alpha Proton X-ray Spectrometer
ÇIVA and ROLIS	Panoramic and microscopic imaging system
CONSERT	Comet Nucleus Sounding Experiment by Radio wave Transmission
COSAC	Cometary Sampling and Composition experiment
PTOLEMY	Evolved Gas Analyser
MUPUS	Multi-Purpose Sensor for Surface and Subsurface Science
ROMAP	Rosetta lander Magnetometer and Plasma Monitor
SD2	Sample and Distribution Device
SESAME	Surface Electric Sounding and Acoustic Monitoring Experiment

To  know more about our work on taking this historic event to public in Nepal, like us at www.facebook.com/NepalAstronomicalSociety or subscribe our blog ( you can do that by submitting your email at the top right of this page)!

Looking forward to have successful landing! Happy Landing Philae :)