Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Dec 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007agufm.p53a0989u&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2007, abstract #P53A-0989
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
6055 Surfaces, 6094 Instruments And Techniques, 6210 Comets (6023)
Scientific paper
Rosetta is a Cornerstone Mission of the previous Horizon 2000 ESA Programme. It is going to rendezvous with comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko after a 10 years cruise and to study both its nucleus and coma through an orbiting spacecraft and a landed platform. The latter, named Philae, after the island where the obelisk was found which helped together with the stone of Rosetta to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphs, has been designed to land softly on the comet nucleus and is equipped with 10 scientific instruments to perform in-situ studies of the cometary material. Philae has been provided by an international consortium with participation of Germany (lead), France, Italy, UK, Finland, Ireland, Hungary and Austria. Rosetta has been successfully launched on March 2, 2004 from Kourou in French Guyana. Philae is operated by the Lander Control Centre (LCC) at DLR, Cologne and the Science Operations and Navigation Centre (SONC) at CNES, Toulouse via ESOC in Darmstadt. Since the launch, (besides commissioning and several checkouts), two planetary swingbys at the Earth (March 2005 and November 2007) and one at Mars (February 2007) have been performed, where the Lander has been operational. Rosetta will reach 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko in spring 2014 and start to investigate the comet with remote sensing instruments. Those data will allow the selection of a preferred landing site for Philae. The delivery of the Lander to the surface of the comet is foreseen in November 2014 at a distance of about 3 Astronomical Units (AU) to the sun. One particular challenge of the mission is the landing on currently completely unknown terrain. Little is known about the target comet. The paper will discuss recent results on the nature of comets (e.g. by Deep Impact or Stardust) and their implications on the Philae Lander mission.
Biele Jens
Paetz B.
Ulamec Stefan
No associations
LandOfFree
Rosetta Lander - Philae: Status after three swing-bys and about 4 years in space does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Rosetta Lander - Philae: Status after three swing-bys and about 4 years in space, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Rosetta Lander - Philae: Status after three swing-bys and about 4 years in space will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1407955