And here I am, 4.5 billion years later, up close and personal to Lutetia as it races along its own trajectory. What a feeling when I considered that they began to circle the Solar System as it was forming. It was exhilarating to fly faster than a bullet alongside these giant asteroids. I will send them back to Earth via radio waves that will be detected and read by huge antennas back on earth. We did not want to get too close to Lutetia-21, a 62 mile-wide boulder, too big to mess with. We met several hundred million miles from our landing site. We did, however, have a prearranged plan to rendezvous with two asteroids, Steins and Lutetia-21. I am sure you can well imagine what would happen to our spaceship if we were to collide with an asteroid. Traveling at that speed I had to keep a watch out for asteroids and space debris. I also understand now why that fly-by was necessary because it sent us hurtling into deep space at more then 20,000 miles per hour. Its diameter is 88,000 miles, more than ten times Earth’s 8,000-mile diameter. I know now why it is called the king of the planets in our solar system. You cannot imagine the breathtaking size of Jupiter until you have had a close encounter with that Giant. I was sure we were going to crash into it, but instead its gravitational force swung us around and flung us into outer space. I also felt that same excitement when my ship approached the planet Mars. It was necessary to do that in order to get the gravity-assist slingshot effect. I got to see Earth again three times after my spaceship looped around the sun. It was nice at the outset of our journey.
What a trip! Consider this, it took 10 years to make this 4 billion-mile journey, at the not-so-shabby speed of 23,000 miles/hour, or roughly, 6.4 miles/second. No aches or pains I feel as fit as a fiddle. I have landed on Comet 67P, currently referred to as the Rosetta Comet, and I am safe and sound.
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