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The Most Important Alarm Clock in the Solar System (Video)
Rosetta spacecraft wakes up from deep space hibernation, 673 million kilometres from the Sun, on 20 January 2014.
Prior to entering hibernation on 8 June 2011, Rosetta was oriented so that its solar arrays faced the Sun, and it began rotating once per minute for stability. The only devices left running were its computer and several heaters.
Rosetta’s computer is programmed to carry out a sequence of events to re-establish contact with the Earth on 20 January, starting with an ‘alarm clock’ at 10:00 GMT. Immediately after, the star trackers begin to warm up. Around 6 hours later the thrusters are fired and the slow rotation stops. A slight adjustment is made to Rosetta’s orientation to ensure that the solar arrays now face the Sun.
Watch the videos here: The Most Important Alarm Clock in the Solar System https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ9XDDTLWlY
Rosetta: The Story So Far – Rosetta’s Journey Through the Solar System https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHEHzvK1rcg
IMAGE CREDIT: ESA
ESA
Read more here:
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/The_most_important_alarm_clock_in_the_Solar_System
