Transcript

NARRATOR:

The Rosetta Mission. For centuries, humans have gazed at comets blazing in the night sky, from ancient civilizations, to early astronomers, right up to the current generation of space scientists and engineers, who created a daring mission to explore a comet up close. The mission is called Rosetta. The team behind it, the European Space Agency.

The Rosetta team have overcome many challenges. Its first launch was aborted, missing the chance to visit comet 46P. But they had a backup, 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko. After ten years of travelling through space to play catch-up with a comet, Rosetta launched a small probe called Philae to land on 67P in November 2014.

However, the harpoons and the rocket designed to lock the probe onto the surface failed to fire. Little Philae, weighing as much as AAA battery on Earth, bounced up, then landed down, only to bounce again. The instruments on board were unharmed. But Philae landed in a crevice too dark for solar power.

The race was on, as the mission control team tried to download the data before Philae's battery was depleted. They managed to gather over 80% of the data they set out to capture from Philae before it went into hibernation. Then, in June 2015, they were overjoyed to hear Philae transmit again. As 67P approached the sun, the energy striking the comet increased enough to bring Philae back to life.