[geocentrism] Project Rosetta
- From: Paul Deema <paul_deema@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Geocentrism@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2007 15:41:26 +0000 (GMT)
Greetings all
I wonder did anyone miss the recent Rosetta press release? (See attachment).
What is the geocentric explanation for Rosetta making three of its four gravity
assist flybys around Earth?
Paul D
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Europe's space probe swings by Mars Sunday February 25, 04:06 AM
Click to enlarge photo
DARMSTADT, Germany (Reuters) - The European Space Agency's Rosetta probe
swooped around the back of Mars early on Sunday, completing a key manoeuvre in
its 10-year mission to meet a distant comet.
The pioneering space probe performed its "swing-by" of the red planet early on
Sunday, performing the second of four so-called "gravitational assisted
manoeuvres" that the craft will complete before reaching its ambitious target
in 2014.
The three-tonne probe successfully orbited Mars close to the controllers'
planned trajectory and at one point came within just 250 km of the planet's
surface.
"We are all very happy," said Andrea Accomazzo, Rosetta spacecraft operations
manager as employees in the Darmstadt control room applauded the manoeuvre.
Rosetta will ultimately catch and follow the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in
one of the most ambitious projects to date for the European space project.
Controllers had been concerned the probe might face difficulties as it passed
through the Martian shadow, losing the solar power source of its instruments
and leaving it reliant on a brace of tiny batteries.
But after a 20-minute lull, the probe emerged from the other side of Mars at
around 2:30 a.m. British time.
The spacecraft, named after the stone which unlocked the secrets of Egyptian
hieroglyphics, builds on the success of earlier European comet chasers like
Giotto.
"Europe blazed the trail in terms of comet science," ESA's director of science
David Southwood told reporters.
"To really understand the solar system we have to go back where it began and it
began with comets."
In order to reach the distant comet, the one-billion-euro (670 million pounds)
probe must first pick up speed and achieve the right trajectory, accelerated
and assisted by the four swing-bys which use the gravitational pull of planets
as a propellant.
The first such manoeuvre was performed around Earth in 2005, just over a year
after the probe was launched from French Guiana on an Ariane 5 rocket.
After Sunday's Mars manoeuvre, two further trips around Earth, planned for 2007
and 2009, will serve to accelerate the probe until it reaches its final
destination.
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