The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced it has chosen primary and backup sites for its planned comet landing mission. The Philae lander will attempt to land on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on November 11th at drop zone 'Site J', with a 'Site C' identified as a backup if any issues arise with the primary site.
The lander has travelled with the Rosetta spacecraft, which in August became the first mission to successfully orbit a comet. It was launched in March 2004, and the mission is intended to offer the most in-depth survey and analysis of a comet yet.
However, there is no guarantee of success with the planned Philae landing. Stephan Ulamec, Philae Lander Manager at the DLR German Aerospace Center, says "as we have seen from recent close-up images, the comet is a beautiful but dramatic world – it is scientifically exciting, but its shape makes it operationally challenging.
“None of the candidate landing sites met all of the operational criteria at the 100% level, but Site J is clearly the best solution," he added.
If the landing is successful, scientists hope they will have an opportunity to study the nucleus, processes and materials of the comet in more depth.
ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
