Rosetta: a space mission in its own way as technically brilliant as putting a man on the moon
I’m really excited by the Rosetta mission and stunned by the technical achievement of putting Philae onto a comet. Here are some mission facts:
Philae lander
- Travelled 6.4 billion km (four billion miles) to reach the comet
- Journey took 10 years
- Planning for the journey began 25 years ago
Comet 67P
- More than four billion years old
- Mass of 10 billion tonnes
- Hurtling through space at 18km/s (40,000mph)
- Shaped like a rubber duck
You can see some of the pictures transmitted back to Earth in this report.