| Europe is trying to ride a comet for the third time On Thursday, the European Space Agency (ESA) again failed to launch the Ariane 5 rocket into space with the Rosetta research probe on board. The launch was scheduled for 7 hours 36 minutes GMT (10:36 Moscow time), but just a few minutes before the engines were turned on, a command was received to cancel the launch. According to the official version, voiced by ESA representative Franco Bonaccina, Ariane was unable to take off due to bad weather in the vicinity of the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana. Strong winds in the upper atmosphere could disrupt flight parameters. The launch of Rosetta was postponed to Friday, at the same time.
Rosetta is one of the most ambitious projects of the European Community. The billion-dollar probe must hang out in space for ten years: according to the flight schedule, it will reach the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko in January 2014. For the first seven years, Rosetta will revolve around the Sun in the region of the orbits of Mars and Earth, and only in 2011 will it set off for its target. Having flown almost 800 million kilometers and reaching the comet, the probe will study its surface for almost a whole year, and in November 2014 a lander will be sent to the nucleus. At this moment, the comet will approach the Sun, and its substance will begin to evaporate little by little, forming a tail. The main task of Rosetta is to study the chemical and physical characteristics of the cometary nucleus, which, according to scientists, was formed several billion years ago and has survived to this day almost unchanged. This will help astronomers obtain more accurate data about the earliest history of the solar system.
When fully loaded, Rosetta weighs 3 tons, and most of its mass - 1670 kilograms - is the fuel necessary for maneuvering the device in space. The scientific instruments themselves are only 165 kilograms, and the descent module weighs another hundredweight. Once the probe reaches the required speed, it will deploy two 14-meter solar panels and an antenna for deep space radio communications. And the name of the device itself should be reminiscent of the famous Rosetta Stone. On this slab, discovered in Egypt during the Napoleonic Wars, the same text was written in both Egyptian hieroglyphs and ancient Greek. Comparison of the two inscriptions helped decipher the mysterious writing of the pharaohs. Scientists believe that the modern “Rosetta” will in the same way provide an opportunity to penetrate into secrets, but this time universal ones.
Before Rosetta, no spacecraft had landed on the surface of a comet. And if the Europeans manage to successfully complete this mission, it will become one of the most important events in the history of space exploration, comparable to the landing of man on the Moon. However, many are now very skeptical about the ESA program: too often in recent years, the European agency’s pompous programs have ended in complete fiasco. These failures look especially sad against the background of the successes of competitors. The United States gives NASA billions of dollars, and their Mars rovers Opportunity and Spirit, despite accidents, still crawl around the Red Planet. The Russians take the last penny out of their meager budget and manage to fly to the ISS, replacing the suspended American shuttle program with their Soyuz. Even the Chinese have finally sent their taikunaut into orbit and are already dreaming of colonizing the Moon. Meanwhile, united Europe is losing the expensive Beagle-2 apparatus on Mars and has been unable to cope with the launch of Rosetta for many years now.
The European comet probe was going to be launched for the first time back in January 2003. Then Rosetta had to carry out its unique program on comet Wirtanen. However, ESA encountered technical problems - the systems of the Ariane 5 launch vehicle failed, and the launch had to be postponed. But the opportune moment was missed, and comet Wirtanen passed by. We had to look for another suitable target, and then the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, discovered by Soviet scientists in October 1969, was chosen as the object of study. But the launch delay of more than a year cost the Europeans another 70 million euros. This time, the “window” for launching Ariana will be open until March 18, but if this time Rosetta does not start, then this project will most likely have to be given up for good. Vladimir DZAGUTO |
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