2867 Steins and 21 Lutetia: the Rosetta mission asteroid targets

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Scientific paper

Rosetta mission has been launched with success on March 2nd 2004. The mission started its journey to the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko that will be reached in 2014, after three Earth and one Mars gravity assisted swing-bys. Due to the optimum launch conditions, the remaining delta-V allowed the fly-by of two asteroids. To help in selecting the best targets for scientific return we observed most of the possible candidates. On the basis of our results we recommended the choice of asteroids 2867 Steins and 21 Lutetia as targets for the mission. The present knowledge of the two targets' physical properties will be presented. 21 Lutetia (D=95.5 km) will allow the radio science experiments to determine its mass and to estimate its density. If the appurtenance of 2867 Steins to the E class is confirmed, the results of the fly-by will enlarge the knowledge of the asteroid population with the first in-situ exploration of a rare class object. More observations of the two targets with different techniques are needed in order i) to obtain more accurate albedo determination , ii) to characterize the surface composition, iii) to determine their shapes and iv) to estimate their pole directions. The knowledge of these parameters will allow us to optimize the operation during the fly-bys and to increase the science return of the mission.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

2867 Steins and 21 Lutetia: the Rosetta mission asteroid targets 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 2867 Steins and 21 Lutetia: the Rosetta mission asteroid targets, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and 2867 Steins and 21 Lutetia: the Rosetta mission asteroid targets will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1013821

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.