MEXICO: Ground controllers are analyzing a fault aboard Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft after an encounter with comet dust confused the probe’s navigation system, leaving the robot explorer in a temporary safe mode and halting regular science operations.
Rosetta ran into trouble during a March 28 flyby near the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov Gerasimenko, the oddly-shaped comet the mission has explored since August 2014.
The spacecraft uses small cameras to locate bright stars in the sky, using the stellar fixes to determine its orientation in space.
During the March 28 flyby, Rosetta zipped past the comet’s icy core at a distance of about 14 kilometers, or 8.7 miles. The probe aimed for a flyby point over the larger of comet 67P’s two lobes, according to the European Space Agency.
The comet is heating up as it swings closer to the sun, triggering plumes of outgassing water vapor and dust particles. Scientists expect the comet’s awakening to continue past perihelion — its closest approach to the sun — on Aug. 13, with the period of most activity forecast for September.
ESA officials blame the growing cloud around the comet’s nucleus for the pointing error during the March 28 flyby.
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