LONDON: The Rosetta space probe has had a near-death experience after being ‘king hit’ on a close pass with Comet 67P.
Rosetta “experienced significant difficulties in navigation” on a close pass last weekend, when the probe was sent skimming above the comet’s surface.
Essentially, an eruption of gas from the comet struck the delicate robotic space craft — twisting its antenna array away from Earth.
Rosetta sent itself into “safe mode”, shutting down all but essential internal services and initiating a “reboot” cycle to re-establish contact with ground control.
It’s not the first time the space probe has made a close pass. Its closest fly-by was just 6km on February 14. The weekend’s pass was a seemingly safer 14km.
But a lot has changed since February.
The comet has begun to “wake”.
