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The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
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Comet landing sites in context
Rosetta’s planned impact point in Ma’at shown in context with Philae’s first and final touchdown sites. All three sites are on the smaller of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko’s two lobes.
Insets show close-up details of the three sites. Philae’s first touchdown in Agilkia was captured by the lander’s descent camera ROLIS; the image shown here was taken from a height of just 9 m above the surface on 12 November 2014, and has a resolution of 0.95 cm/pixel. The view at Philae’s final touchdown site, known as Abydos, was taken by the lander’s CIVA camera on 13 November 2014; the image shown here is a two-image mosaic, and includes one of the lander’s feet.
Rosetta is destined to make a controlled impact into the Ma’at region of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on 30 September 2016, targeting a point within a 700 x 500 m ellipse (a very approximate outline is marked on the image). The inset was taken with Rosetta’s Navigation Camera on 13 October 2014 from a distance of 16.8 km; the full frame original image can be found in the Archive Image Browser.
