ESA To Reactivate Deep-Space Probe, Will Attempt Comet Landing By Mid-Nov

The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced its plan to reactivate a deep-space probe to chase and land on a comet, BBC News reported.

The target date to land on the space rock, Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, is Nov. 11, 2014, but first, the ESA must bring the Rosetta spacecraft back online. The space agency will attempt to do so in January.

The ESA announced their plans at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting. ESA's Matt Taylor, Rosetta's chief scientists, said such a feat has never been accomplished before.

"You have the hurdle of getting it back on, then there is a massive hurdle of getting it close to the comet... And then there's landing on it," he said. "This is going to be a year of intensity."

Rosetta is currently in a hibernation of sorts in deep space. Launched in March 2004, the craft has journeyed the solar system, orbiting Earth three times and swinging around Mars on course for the comet. Rosetta has an internal alarm clock that is set to go off on Jan. 20 at 10 GMT.

This process, Taylor said, can be "nerve wracking," as it not quite so simple as waking up and getting out of bed. The on-board electronics will have to warm up and the craft will have to establish its own position, which involves becoming stable after a long and slow spin while hibernating.

"By the evening, that is when the first signals will be beaming back from Earth. Hopefully we will receive them," Taylor said. "But it's going to be a very slow day - I imagine there will be lots of scientists pacing up and down while we wait."

If the team can reactivate Rosetta, the mission will push along as planned. The comet has a core about two-and-a-half miles (4km) wide. The mission will be very risky and the team behind the craft will have no precedent for their actions, as such a feat has never been attempted before.

If successful, Rosetta would collect samples and capture images while the comet makes its way toward a 2015 approach to the sun. The objective of the mission is to learn more about the space rocks made up of ice and dust.