The European Space Agency (ESA) has held an hour-long hangout to explain what's likely to happen when its Rosetta spacecraft touches down on Comet 67p.
On Sunday, after a final manoeuvre, the spacecraft will start a 14-hour descent.
Operations manager Sylvain Lodiot says the agency expects Rosetta to land somewhere inside a 600 x 400 metre footprint target zone, to be refined on September 30 (European time) as it descends. The mission plan calls for touchdown at 10:40PM UTC (11:40PM in the UK) but that pesky speed of light problem means we won't know what's happened for about 40 minutes.
While the descent will be gentle – below one metre/second – Rosetta wasn't designed for a landing, so it will certainly bounce and tumble after its first touchdown, and Lodiot expects damage to the solar panels or instruments.
Before that, flight director Andrea Accomazzo said, the world will get a very close look at the comet, and the descent should provide insights into its internal structure beyond those already gleaned by the Philae lander.
