European Space Agency sets tentative date for 1st comet landing Nov. 11

An artist's impression of the Rosetta orbiter deploying the Philae lander to comet 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko. After an extensive mapping phase by the orbiter in AugustSeptember 2014, a landing site will be selected for Philae to conduct in situ measurements in November 2014.ESAC. Carreau/ATG medialab

BERLIN –  The European Space Agency has set a tentative date for the first landing of a spacecraft on a comet.

ESA says its Rosetta probe will wake up from hibernation Jan. 20 before chasing down comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

If all goes according to plan, Rosetta will launch a lander onto the surface of the comet on Nov. 11, 2014.

The mission is different from NASA's Deep Impact probe that fired a projectile into comet Tempel 1 in 2005 to let scientists study the plume of matter it hurled into space.

ESA's director of science, Mark McCaughrean, said Tuesday that the lander Philae will dig up samples of the comet and analyze them using on-board instruments.

One objective is to learn whether the water on Earth could have come from comets.

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Space agency ends attempt to contact Russian probe (AP)

MOSCOW – The European Space Agency said Friday it has abandoned efforts to contact a rogue Russian space probe, increasing the likelihood it will plunge to Earth.

The unmanned Phobos-Ground probe was to head to the Mars moon of Phobos on a 2 1/2-year mission to take soil samples and fly them back to Earth. But the probe became stuck in Earth orbit after its Nov. 9 launch and attempts to send commands that could propel it toward the Mars moon have been unsuccessful.

ESA said in a statement that although the agency has halted efforts to contact the probe, it will resume if any changes are reported by the Russian space agency.

A spokesman for the Paris-based ESA told The Associated Press that Russia was going to continue to try to contract the probe over the weekend; he spoke on condition he not be named. Russian space officials could not be reached for comment late Friday.

Russian deputy space chief Vitaly Davydov said last month that if the spacecraft is not sent to Mars, it could fall to Earth sometime between late December and late February.

The failed spacecraft is 13.2 metric tons (14.6 tons); most of that weight, about 11 metric tons (12 tons), is highly toxic fuel. Experts say that if the fuel has frozen, some could survive the plummet to Earth, but that if it is liquid it will likely combust from the heat of re-entering the atmosphere.

The mission was planned to reach Mars orbit next September and land on Phobos in February 2013.

Scientists hoped that studies of the Phobos soil would help solve the mystery of its origin and shed more light on the genesis of the solar system. Some believe that the crater-dented moon is an asteroid captured by Mars' gravity, while others think it's a piece of debris resulting from Mars' collision with another celestial object.

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Online:

ESA website http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_re_eu/storytext/eu_russia_mars_mission/43786367/SIG=10k9t67oj/*http://www.esa.int

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Associated Press writer Sarah DiLorenzo contributed to this story from Paris.

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