|
The launch of the Ariane 5 rocket carrying the Rosetta was initially set for last Thursday, but that was delayed until Friday due to high winds. The launch was then delayed for a further 24 hours when a technical problem with the insulation tiles on the main fuel tank was discovered.
The tile broke away because of the expansion and contraction of the tank after it was filled with extremely cold liquid hydrogen, and then emptied following the previous days launch attempt.
Rosetta's flight timetable over the next 10 years is so precise that the rocket has to be launched at an exact second in the pre-dawn hours during its three-week launch window, which closes on March 17.If the launch window closes, "we can launch [again] in one year's time to the same comet if we have a larger launch vehicle," said John Ellwood, in charge of the Rosetta mission at ESA. The alternative rockets for this would be the Ariane 5 ECA, a rocket with a 10-tonne launch capacity that this year will undergo a test flight following a disastrous maiden flight in December 2002, and the Russian Proton rocket.
The mission will meet up in deep space with Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014 and follow it on its path around the Sun. The orbiter, equipped with remote sensors to map and probe the comet's surface, will also send down a miniature laboratory to conduct a chemical analysis of its ice and soil, believed to hold complex molecules that could help explain how life began on Earth.
Rosetta and its lander, Philae, should have headed off into space more than a year ago towards another target, Comet Wirtanen. But that mission was scrapped due reliability of the Ariane 5 launcher, so another comet was chosen.
More info: ESA
Related News
Rosetta lander named Philae
ESA's Rosetta comet chaser ready for lift-off
|
