Rosetta
Status: Under
Development
Launch Date: January 20, 2003
Mission Summary: Rosetta is a European Space Agency (ESA) mission to study the nucleus of the comet Wirtanen and its environment. Scheduled to arrive on November 27, 2011, Rosetta will advance our knowledge of the origin of comets and the relationship between cometary and interstellar material and its implications with regard to the origin of the Solar System. It will take measurements for two years to determine the surface morphology and composition and study cometary activity and the processes in the surface layer of the nucleus and inner coma. Rosetta will also drop a lander which will take close-up surface readings.
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