The biggest achievements of 2014 happened in the last half of the year.In August, after a decade-long flight, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft became the first man-made object to enter into orbit around a comet, more than 400 million kilometers away.In November, Rosetta launched a probe, named Philae, that made the first soft landing on the comet.Its rugged surface caused the probe to settle down in partial shade, but lander manager Stephan Ulamec counseled patience.“Our original fear that the lander would overheat is not relevant anymore," he said."We are in the shadow. So we can operate much longer in principle but we have to be patient and wait for a little bit more time until we have enough solar power to reactivate Philae.”In September, the U.S. scientific satellite MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission) entered an orbit around Mars,with the mission of learning what happened to the Red Planet's atmosphere and water.MAVEN principal investigator Bruce Jakosky says scientists now know that Mars once had a much denser atmosphereand that it has changed significantly over the last few billion years. What they still don’t know is how and why that happened.“We are trying to understand what the cause of that climate change has been,and we are looking at the role that escape to space may have played in removing the atmosphere and changing the atmosphere,”Jakosky said.
