Article Posted on : - Jun 06, 2011

Artist's impression of the Rosetta orbiter and lander. Photo: ESA.

WASHINGTON (BNS): ESA will send its Rosetta comet-hunter into deep-space hibernation mode on 8th June, for over 31 months.

During this period, Rosetta will loop ever closer toward comet 67-P, soaring to almost 1000 million km from Earth.

"Rosetta is getting farther from the Sun, and soon there simply isn't going to be enough sunlight to power its systems," Paolo Ferri, Head of ESOC's Solar and Planetary Mission Operations Division, said.

"We already achieved a record in July 2010 when we reached 400 million km from the Sun and became the most distant spacecraft ever to operate on solar power alone. Rosetta will double the record distance during the hibernation period," he added.

Roseta has marked most dramatic and distant stages of the probe's 10-year journey to rendezvous with Comet 67-P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

This will trigger the last steps in the shut-down of the spacecraft, turning off almost all flight control systems including telecommunications and attitude control. Rosetta's scientific instruments were already individually powered down during the first four months of this year.

Prior to entering hibernation, Rosetta will be oriented so that its solar wings face the Sun and be placed into a slow spin, which will stabilise the satellite.