Rosetta to pass Mars
ESA's Rosetta spacecraft launched back in 2004 on its 10 year mission to seek out comet Comet 67 P/Churyumov- Gerasimenko and touch down a small lander on the comet's nucleus. Rosetta's total journey length will be a whopping 7,000,000,000 km because it has to undergo several flybys of the Earth and Mars which help boost its velocity enough for it to get to the comet. This Sunday - 25th February - Rosetta will pass Mars, getting another gravity assist. The spacecraft will also make some limited observations of the red planet as it goes by.
Posted in astro blog by Stuart on Wednesday 21st Feb 2007 (20:37 CET) | Permalink
