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The probe weighed in at 3,000kg at liftoff back in 2004, with over half of that made up of propellant Wow I am starting to understand why they are so intereste

• hrjet 12y ago
  My guess: The probe won't orbit the comet, but rather orbit the sun in sync with the comet. That too would be artificial because the comet's mass and the probe's mass will keep changing (presumably at different rates). So the probe would need to catch up every once in a while.
  • deleted 12y ago
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• zak_mc_kracken 12y ago
  Bit of both. Rosetta will enter a hyperbolic orbit around P67 at 100km of altitude but it will have to use its thrusters on a regular basis to adjust its trajectory.
  • exDM69 12y ago
    Rosetta will eventually settle in a 20 km orbit around the comet tail. It will still have to use thrusters because orbiting an small irregular blob of melting ice and rock isn't going to work without precise maneuvering.
• exDM69 12y ago
  > Does the comet actually have enough gravity to make an orbit happen or is the orbit completely artificial? Yes it does. Rosetta is now at 100 km distance while they are trying to figure out the mass and the mass distribution of the comet (unknown at this time!), and will eventually settle in a 20 km orbit, finally 10 km, around the comet. This isn't going to be easy, see elsewhere ITT for some detailed discussion.