Standing on a comet

A comet-bound spacecraft that spent more than two years in a deep sleep mode woke up on Jan. 20 to begin the home stretch of its decade-long journey to a mile-wide ball of rock, dust and ice.

Standing on a comet Rosetta—a European Space Agency-led mission that involves University of Michigan engineers and scientists—is on track to be the first craft to actually land on a comet as well as track it for an extended period of time.

The Philae lander is scheduled to latch on to the core of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko in November. Rosetta's orbiter will circle it through 2015. No mission has ever attempted such an in-depth look at one of these relics of the earliest days of our solar system.

Engin...

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