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Rosetta: Decision due on comet landing site (BBC)
By Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent, BBC News, Paris
The European Space Agency is about to release more details of its audacious bid to try to land on a comet.
Since early August, its Rosetta probe has been in close proximity to 67P/C-G - a 10-billion-tonne mass of ice and dust some 400 million km from Earth.
Engineers and scientists have spent the weekend debating where on the surface it might be possible to put down a small contact robot.
Esa is expected to announce its primary and reserve choices on Monday.
Whichever site is chosen will be extremely challenging.
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more: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29197291
1 replies
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That's the best way to test Philea's camera, BTW. Philea will hopefully land on the comet this November, where we will hopefully get pictures close and personal.
BTW, the solar panel in the pic is 14 meters long. (That's over 45 feet long for you metric challenged.)
The comet --upper center -- is about 50 km away.
More at Emily Lakdawalla's excellent Blog
Science is cool. Planetary science is fucking awesome.