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Research | Space Research | Planetary research - Rosetta
Rosetta
ESA's Rosetta is a scientific mission to a comet, and it will constitute the next planetary cornerstone mission. The comet to be explored is 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko because the first target, 46P/Wirtanen, is not reachable due to a delay in the Ariane-5 launch schedule. The spacecraft was launched in February 2004 and has a cruise time of nearly eleven years. The scientific objective of Rosetta is to study the cometary material with different experiments and instruments. It is believed that such investigations of primordial material yield unique information about the formation of the solar system. The scientific objectives of Rosetta will be accomplished in two different ways: by remote-sensing investigations from an orbiter and by in situ observations on the surface of the comet using the Surface Science Package (SSP) Philae.
- On Friday morning, November 13, 2009 at 09.46 Finnish time Rosetta approached the Earth for the third and last time as close as 2481 km, taking several images with its high resolution cameras and measuring the interaction of the solar wind with the Earth's near-environment. From the instruments FMI is participating in, only the plasma instruments of the RPC package were active. Eight hours later Rosetta will pass by the Moon at a distance of about 233 000 km before continuing outwards from the Sun. On December 17 it will achieve its perihelion of this orbit at a distance of 2.6 AU from the Sun. On July 10 another asteroid flyby will be made investigating 21/Lutetia, which is one of the larger asteroids with dimensions of 130 km x 104 km x 74 km compared to last year's fly-by target Steins, where Rosetta determined the size as 5.73 km x 4.95 km x 4.58 km.
The orbit of Churyumov-Gerasimenko is highly eccentric with perihelia and aphelia of roughly 1.3 and 5.7 AU, respectively. Thus, temperature conditions, solar radiation etc. greatly vary, which implies severe requirements to the equipment used in the mission. Another fact essentially affecting the operation of the spacecraft and the lander is the extremely low gravity of the comet. Special harpoon systems are included to fix the lander to the cometary surface.
The lander was built by a German-lead consortium with a total mass of 75 kg. Its 23 kg payload includes 9 instrument groups, that will analyse chemical and physical properties of the comet as well as take pictures of the surface. The lander also contains penetrating and drilling instruments to investigate the subsurface properties and material. Some mobility on the cometary surface is also possible. The Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) contributed to the following subprojects of Rosetta:
- the orbiter's instrument COSIMA (Cometary Secondary Ion Mass Analyzer)
- the orbiter's instrument MIP (Mutual Impedance Probe)
- the orbiter's instrument LAP (LAngmuir PRobe)
- the orbiter's instrument ICA (Ion Composition Analyser)
- the lander's instrument [HREF=/research_space/space_34.html)PP] (Permittivity Probe)
- the lander's mass memory system (CDMS/MEM)
- ground support systems for COSIMA, PP, and MIP
Experience obtained by the FMI in the design and manufacturing of the Mars 96 Small Station and the SWAN instrument of the SOHO spacecraft will be applied to these projects.
More information:
, tel. 358 9 1929 4658
last updated 13.11.2009 09:45
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News:
- Download the MPEG File of the Rosetta Mission movie with Steins Flyby (79 MB) (C) CNES Rosetta SONC (9.9.2009)
Where is Rosetta now (12.11.2009)
larger image
Background Information:
Useful links:
- Download the Quicktime-version, AVI-version of the Rosetta animation movie (Cinepak 12.6 MB, playing time 2 min 30 s) (C) Finnish Meteorological Institute
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