One of the most successful space exploration missions, Rosetta, ends on 30 September in a controlled descent to the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The last six weeks ahead of the landing are particularly challenging. The spacecraft is flying eccentric orbits around the comet, getting nearer and nearer to the surface. This is in many ways even riskier than the final descent itself. Rosetta has been studying comet 67P for almost two years. Now the comet is moving away from the Sun and with diminishing amount of light falling on Rosetta’s solar panels, it has less and less power to run its scientific instruments and sub-systems.
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