CANADA: The world watched in wonder last November as the Philae spacecraft shot anchoring harpoons out of its base and attached itself to the Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet.
This moment was the culmination of a 10-year voyage Philae took aboard the Rosetta space probe. Its successful landing was a moment of triumph for the people controlling Rosetta from earth.
European Space Agency senior science adviser, Mark McCaughrean, and head of missions operations, Dr Paolo Ferri, are in Australia to give talks about the Rosetta mission in New Norcia, WA and Canberra.
Mr McCaughrean told SBS the mission statement of Rosetta when it launched in 2004 was to “catch a comet” with an aim to “investigate the origins of water on the earth and life on the earth”.
