Media Advisory: Former NASA astronaut available to discuss Philae/Rosetta comet mission


Thu, 11/13/2014

author

Brendan M. Lynch

LAWRENCE — Steven Hawley, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Kansas and former NASA astronaut, is available to speak with reporters about the European Space Agency’s successful landing Wednesday of a spacecraft on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, some 317 million miles from Earth.  

Launched from the Rosetta spacecraft, the unmanned Philae lander touched down yesterday, slated for about two months of operations, including gauging the comet’s production of water and carbon monoxide/dioxide, providing data on the composition of the comet’s nucleus and probing the comet’s interior.

“First, congratulations to the ESA team for a remarkable engineering achievement,” Hawley said. “Spacecraft from Earth have landed on Venus, the Moon, Mars, Titan and a couple of asteroids, but no one had previously landed a spacecraft on the nucleus of a comet. At the moment there is some uncertainty about the status of Philae on the surface since the anchoring harpoons apparently didn't fire, but it's a great accomplishment all the same. Second, the Philae/Rosetta mission is an exciting opportunity to learn more about the composition of this comet.”

Hawley is a veteran of five Space Shuttle missions as a NASA astronaut, logging 770 hours and 27 minutes in space flights. He was a member of shuttle crews that deployed and repaired the Hubble Space Telescope. Today, his scholarly research interests include planetary nebula and emission-line galaxies, and he currently teaches a class focused on the quest for extraterrestrial life.

“Comets are made up of the materials that were present when the solar system formed,” he said. “There is strong evidence that comets impacted the very young Earth and could have been an important source of both water and organic molecules, two of the enablers for the development of life. By studying the composition of this comet, scientists may be able to better understand how the solar system formed and the extent to which comets contributed water and organics to Earth and perhaps the other terrestrial planets. It's plausible that the processes that formed our solar system are occurring in other planetary systems, so the mission findings could help us in our assessment of the likelihood of life elsewhere. In addition, Rosetta will continue to follow the comet as it approaches the Sun early next year and will see up close what changes take place.”

To schedule an interview with Hawley, contact Brendan M. Lynch at 785-312-0207 or Brendan@ku.edu

Thu, 11/13/2014

author

Brendan M. Lynch

Media Contacts

Brendan M. Lynch

KU News Service

785-864-8855