The landing of the Philae lander is an international, pan-European success story in which Hungary has had an outstanding role thanks to prominent representatives of the national scientific and business communities. The Government finds it important to support space research since thereby it may facilitate the participation of Hungarian small and medium enterprises as well as university and academic research institutions in similar projects.

The mission plan of the European Science Agency (ESA) endorsed 21 years ago has come true by the lander of the Rosetta space probe successfully touching ground on the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on 12 November, 2014. Through the successful completion of the mission, the scientific community will acquire continuous and specific information, accessible by no other ways, about the small-weight comet.

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The programme has catapulted Hungarian space research into the global frontline since Hungary has been one of the 18 countries cooperating in the development of the orbiter and its base on Earth. Hungary had even a bigger share proportionately in constructing the lander, in which 8 countries worked together. There were 4 Hungarian research stations and industrial enterprises that contributed to the construction of Philae, carrying 10 scientific instruments on board. The “brains” of the lander, including its electronics and software, were developed by the Wigner Research Centre of Physics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HSA) and the company SGF Kft.; its energy supply system by the Space Research Team of the Department of Broadband Infocommunications and Electromagnetic Theory of Budapest University of Technology and Economics. The Centre for Energy Research of HSA also participated in developing two of the measuring instruments.

“It was with a view to exploit the opportunities in the industry that the Government decided that Hungary should join the European Space Agency as a full-fledged member. The Ministry of National Development and the Hungarian Space Research Office operating within the framework of the former wish to become partners of the Hungarian space research and space industrial communities in attaining achievements similar to the instruments that prove to be a success on board of Rosetta. The Ministry expects that through Hungary’s ESA membership the country will be a part of similar world successes increasingly frequently in future. The involvement of Hungarian representatives of the sector as developers and suppliers in big international projects may help keep experts with the highest engineering knowledge in Hungary”, Deputy State Secretary for Infocommunication of the Ministry of National Development Károly Balázs Solymár pointed out.

(Ministry of National Development)