August 2017
Big science from small spacecraft
... will require a higher standard of reliability: ESA’s flagship Rosetta mission took 10 years to rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Such long mission durations are not unusual when we plan missions to chase the so-called ‘short-period...
15 June 2015
Rosetta’s Philae lander awakens
... news due to the major importance of the Rosetta mission, which is doing a detailed study of the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The study of comets is not merely the study of faraway worlds – it can also provide vital clues about...
June 2015
The day Philae landed: how a rough touchdown still made history at the Rosetta Mission
The date 12 November 2014 will be remembered as the day when Europe made space history by making the first landing of a robotic probe on a comet. Anticipation of the event and the challenges to success had already raised worldwide attention, but the...
August 2016
International cooperation drives Germany’s space ambitions
.... An example of a very successful international project in which DLR participated is the European Rosetta mission to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, in which development and operation of the Philae lander was led by DLR. Together with ESA, the first...
June 2017
Automated or human-operated systems?
... using Automated-Human-Robot-System. ESA’s Rosetta showing the deployment of the Philae lander to comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Indeed, humans should always be allowed to decide and act when faced with the unplanned, the unknown...
February 2019
Simulating lunar and martian regolith in the laboratory
... for future missions, these surface regoliths have to be simulated in the lab. Close up image of Comet 67P/Churyumov– Gerasimenko by Philae’s lander imaging system on ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft. Recreating the surface of Mars Simulating lunar and...
