This is a spectacular success!

to see the results of its long journey. And, suddenly, it's there! Wow, how time flies!

"Amazing", "spectacular", and "success" are nearly understated, MM.

stay with it and provide information as it approaches the Sun. We're going to learn a pile of stuff from this comet. Knowledge is good. I like this kind of space exploration best. Unmanned stuff ends up giving us more information than manned. Look at everything we have gained from Hubble and many other unmanned craft. And no zero-gravity toilets are needed.

K/R for super-cool news!

Rosetta has a lander which is going to fire a gripper into the comet so that it can attach itself, the gravity is so small.

This is very cool science, and Rosetta is a whole decade into its mission.

Totally awesome!

It starts with cool fly-by photos and chemical analysis, and before you know it London is decimated by naked space vampires.

In other words, "You know, this Ebola shit is scary!!!"

I am afeared!

(CNN) -- After a 10-year chase taking it billions of miles across the solar system, the Rosetta spacecraft made history Wednesday as it became the first probe to rendezvous with a comet on its journey around the sun.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/06/world/rosetta-spacecraft-comet-approach/

That will only come with time. The comet has very low gravity, as it is relatively small mass. To learn about the dynamics of this mission, DUers should go to the link in my OP. Emily Lakdawalla breaks it down fairly well. I recommend a click through .

Rosetta will go through many course corrections in the upcoming weeks in order to be finally captured gravitationally, albeit very weakfully. This comet is not very massive.

The reason for my post is Lakdawalla's excellent Blog post.

After completing a complex series of nine orbital manoeuvres since the end of hibernation on 20 January, Rosetta is finally in position to rendezvous with the comet.

Orbit entry will take place on 6 August,

http://www.livestream.com/eurospaceagency/video?clipId=flv_9e132edb-cae6-4bd2-acef-cb8a50f2496a&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/Rosetta_timeline_countdown_to_comet_arrival

Click through the link in my OP. There is a graphic.

It is really, really difficult to orbit such a low mass object. And that is not going to happen on August 6.

I know I am being a pedant, but I will stand by my post.

Again, click through.

Best regards.

I think we should hollow it out, strap on some booster rockets and make it a spaceship

just like the asteroids

Project Hyperion: The Hollow Asteroid Starship

In other words, rotating. One cannot just strap a rocket engine on one to make any accurate course correction.

That's why we probably need a couple of decades to move an asteroid out of a collision course with Earth. Recommended: a gravity tractor. Of course, inaccurate changes can be made by simply crashing something into it.

Forget nuclear weapons. That only helps in Hollywood. In the real world, it would be a nightmare.

Timeline:

August 6, 2014: Rosetta scheduled to arrive at the comet and begin triangular orbits around it at a height of 100 kilometres. Over the next three months, it will scan the comet's surface and sub-surface with 11 onboard cameras, radar, microwave, infrared and other sensors.

November 11, 2014 (scheduled): Rosetta sends down a 100-kilogram robot laboratory, Philae. The lander, equipped with 10 instruments, is released at a height of about one kilometre, touching down at walking speed. It fires a small harpoon to anchor itself, starts to send back pictures and conducts chemistry experiments on rock samples.

November 2014 - 2015: Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko loops around the Sun, approaching on August 13, 2015 to within 186 million kilometres of our star.

December 2015: Scheduled end of mission. Escorted by Rosetta and with little Philae piggybacking on it, the comet heads out of the inner Solar System. At this point, Rosetta will once again come close to Earth's orbit, more than 4,000 days after its odyssey began.

That will indeed be a fun thing.

Hope it all works out.

. . . size, density?

. . . now off to convert those measurements to inches, feet, miles