Rosetta comet probe’s space odyssey to end Friday in final burst of science

Europe’s trailblazing deep- space comet exploration for clues to the origins of the Solar System ends Friday with the Rosetta orbiter joining robot lab Philae on the iceball’s dusty surface for eternity.

The 1.4- billion- euro ($ 1.5- billion), 12- year odyssey will conclude with a last- gasp spurt of science- gathering as Rosetta departs the orbit of comet 67P/ Churyumov- Gerasimenko and descends over 14 hours to her final resting place.

Despite the looming end of a mission that has been formative for many of their careers, European Space Agency ( ESA) scientists are looking forward to this final phase of sniffing, tasting and photographing “67P” from just a few hundred, perhaps tens, of meters away.

After dispatching the final data to Earth, Rosetta’s signal will simply vanish from ground control screens at about 1120 GMT, likely with partly uploaded data still in the system.

It takes 40 minutes for Rosetta’s signal to arrive at mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, meaning its actual time of death will be around 1040 GMT.

“It will basically all just disappear in one go, and that’ll be it. There will be nothing else,” said ESA senior science advisor Mark McCaughrean.

The first- ever mission to orbit and land on a comet was approved in 1993 to explore the origins and evolution of our planetary system, as comets are thought to contain prehistoric elements preserved in a dark space deepfreeze.

Rosetta and comet lander Philae blasted off in March 2004, travelling more than 6 billion kilometers to reach the comet in August 2014, aided by slingshot gravity boosts on flybys of Earth and Mars along the way.

The comet chaser and Philae, which it placed on the surface in November 2014, have demystified some aspects of comets as well as adding to their enigmatic allure.

Measurements taken by the pair revealed that comets crashing into an early Earth may well have brought amino acids, the building blocks of life. Comets of 67P’s type definitely did not bring water, yet inexplicably contained oxygen.

The comet is now moving further and further away from the Sun, having made the closest solar pass on its 6.6year elongated orbit in August 2015.