Rosetta: The Final Furlong

Launched in 2004, the Rosetta spacecraft, which is en-route to rendezvous with, and land on, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, awoke from its current deep space hibernation on January 20th, 2014. The 2-part mission includes an Orbiter, which will travel alongside the comet for many months, and a Lander ( Philae ), destined to be set down on the surface of the nucleus in November, 2014. One of the (eleven) instruments on board Philae is a gas chromatographmass spectrometer system aimed at determing [sic] the nature, abundances and stable isotopic compositions of the so-called light elements (e.g. hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen), as well as making certain measurements of nobles [sic] gases and qualitative assessments of the organic compounds present. In addition to the on-comet investigations Ptolemy will also be operated prior to separation/landing, as the spacecraft approaches the comet.