Rosetta: Landing on a Comet

The Rosetta spacecraft is a large aluminum box with dimensions 2.8 x 2.1 x 2.0 meters. Philae, the lander, is a smaller carbon fiber box with dimensions 1 × 1 × 0.8 meters.  An antenna transmits data from the surface to Earth via the orbiting Rosetta. The lander carries nine experiments, with a total mass of about 21 kilograms. It also carries a drilling system to take samples of subsurface material.

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko travels between the orbits of Earth and Jupiter, that is, between about 115 million and 500 million miles from the Sun. However, because Rosetta had to make several looping maneuvers before reaching 67P, the rendezvous with the comet required travelling a cumulative distance of over 4 billion miles.