New Space Explorations - Sophia Davison

As the ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA partner to push new projects through, one particular venture is coming to a head quite soon. On November 12th, the most recent project involving Philae and Rosetta, two comet-worthy landing probes, will be put into action. Rosetta is known for being the first probe to orbit a comet, and now Philae will join in the mission and be the first to land and hopefully send images, samples, and information back to waiting receivers here on Earth. The new technology used in these recent experiments is more advanced than ever before, and will "to learn more about the composition of comets and how they interact with the solar wind -- high energy particles blasted into space by the Sun." Many problems concerning some of this new technology and landing sites upon the gravelly, bumpy surface of the comet have had to be accounted for, and there is no certainty that Philae will not tip over, ruining years of research, experiments, and testing. The purpose of this mission is truly to document any factor of the comet before it reaches its closest and hottest distance during orbit around the sun. After the comet finishes orbit, it will be shot out into deep space again, so pressure to file all information while the opportunity is available is upon all of the supervisors of the expedition. 
This is quite an amazing mission and new venture into space. Even with all of the problems that have been encountered thus far, I hope that the mission is successful and will be watching for news of the outcome. These kinds of experiments are always interesting to me, especially when considering a time when no one had any idea of what was out in the depths of space. With our relatively small scope of what surrounds our planet, we still have more knowledge than before, and we can only hope that this knowledge will expand and be utilized in the future for good. 

http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/10/world/philae-comet-lander/index.html?hpt=hp_c3