The European Space Agency is holding a competition to name the landing site, the prize: participation in the landing event on November 12 in Darmstadt
Less than a month before the high-profile landing of the Paley lander, still riding aboard the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft, on the nucleus of comet P67 Churyumov-Gardimenko, the agency has already determined the landing site.
On November 12, Paley will make a soft landing - for the first time in history. The image of the landing site (surrounded by a circle with a diameter of 500 meters) is on the 'head' of the comet - or the smaller rock of the two connected rocks that make up the comet. Mission scientists have determined that this is the best place to land Pili, who will explore and eventually circle the sun with him for the rest of his life.
Site J was chosen from among five sites proposed by the scientists due to the relatively good safety of landing there. Its access to constant sunlight, and the scientific data and observations that can be accessed through the instrument cluster inside Paley.
"None of the candidate sites met all of these criteria at a 100 percent level, but Site J is the best solution," said Stephan Olamek, Paley Landing Manager at the German space agency DLR.
And in the meantime, the European Space Agency and a number of state agencies started a competition to determine a name for the landing site. Bids for the competition can be submitted until October 22. The prize for the winner - participation in the landing events, at the control center of the European Space Agency in Darmstadt, Germany.
To the competition page on the European Space Agency website
For the news in Universe Today
More on the subject on the science website
