Cosmic Time Capsules: Spacecraft as Archaeological Treasure

Cosmic Time Capsules: Spacecraft as Archaeological Treasure



An artist's impression of Rosetta waking from deep-space hibernation

to rendezvous with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014. (c) ESA,

image by AOES Meidalab.



In May, the Rosetta spacecraft will make its final approach toward the

comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, after patiently stalking the space

rock for ten years. As the comet approaches its perihelion, it will

slow to dig its foot into a gravitational eddy and steer itself around

the sun. As it emerges, Rosetta will strike, launching a sensor-packed

lander like a javelin into the side of the comet. Harpooned in place,

the lander will allow us to reach out across the cosmos and caress a

billion-year-old piece of the solar system.



The experiments are scheduled to last two months, after which

Churyumov-Gerasimenko will have arced around the sun and begun

accelerating back out into deep space. When it does, it will take with

it a small piece of humanity anchored to its side. Forever after, this

relic of early 21st century technology will remain looping above us, a

time capsule buried ten years deep in space.