Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Rosetta In Good Health

Hey Space Placers!

As I watch the fat snowflakes start to get bigger and more numerous here in Virginia, I got this update on Rosetta.

For a spacecraft that is soon to be 10-years-old, been asleep for 957 days and is a half a billion miles from home, this is just an incredible testament as to how well the European Space Agency (ESA) and their partners, including NASA, build spacecraft.

NASA has old-timers still operating after years in space - the oldest of old Voyagers 1 and 2 (we're talking DECADES) , Cassini at Saturn, New Horizons enroute to Pluto next year and of course rover Opportunity on Mars for 10 years now.

Rosetta will have many challenges this year and especially next when she arrives at her cometary destination. But what a ride we are all in for with this mission that will give us a front row seat to the life a comet that swings by the Sun.

Sky Guy in Snowy & Cold VA

No comments:

Post a Comment