The Rosetta Spacecraft is a predominantly ESA Mission developed by a league of European countries with the purpose of achieving the first ever robotic craft to orbit the nucleus of a comet.
Rosetta has an amazing suite of Scientific instruments and packages to investigate the structure, composition, and morphology of a comet in all of its intertwined components - the tails, the coma, and the nucleus along with its interactions with interplanetary dust and the interplanetary medium. Rosetta also has a second robotic vehicle; the Philae lander which piggybacks on the orbiter with the purpose of surface investigations of three nuclei.
An extension of the mission would allow the Rosetta Orbiter to remain in orbit well into 2016. The United States through NASA has a minimal participation in this project via the contribution of three scientific instruments for research into 67P.
At the Novice Presentation
Ever wonder why it is a meaningless question to ask what “power” a telescope is? What in the world is “eye relief” or “exit pupil?” Come learn all about eyepieces in December with a talk for novices and experienced observers too by Loaner Telescope Chair Allen Wilkerson. Learn how eyepieces function, how to choose the right eyepiece for the object you are looking at, how to choose eyepieces that will work best with your telescope and why you may someday want to splurge.