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Rosetta following a living comet
Ferri, Paolo; Accomazzo, Andrea; Hubault, Armelle +7 more
The International Rosetta Mission was launched on 2nd March 2004 on its 10 year journey to rendezvous with comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta performed comet orbit insertion on the 6th of August 2014, after which it characterised the nucleus and orbited it at altitudes as low as a few kilometres. In November 2014 Rosetta delivered the lander…
Rosetta mission operations for landing
Accomazzo, Andrea; Lodiot, Sylvain; Companys, Vicente
The International Rosetta Mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) was launched on 2nd March 2004 on its 10 year journey to comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko and has reached it early August 2014. The main mission objectives were to perform close observations of the comet nucleus throughout its orbit around the Sun and deliver the lander Philae to its …
Philae locating and science support by robotic vision techniques
Remetean, E.; Souvannavong, F.; Dolives, B. +4 more
The ROLIS, CIVA-P and OSIRIS instruments on-board the Philae lander and the Rosetta orbiter acquired high-resolution images during the lander's descent towards the targeted landing site Agilkia, during its unexpected rebounds and at the final landing site Abydos on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. We, exploited these images, using robotic vision t…
An investigation into potential causes of the anomalistic feature observed by the Rosetta Alice spectrograph around 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Parker, Joel Wm.; Stern, S. Alan; Noonan, John +6 more
The Alice far-ultraviolet spectrograph in operation around the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on the Rosetta spacecraft experiences an anomalistic feature (AF) that is ubiquitous at comet separations less than 450 km. This feature is highly temporally variable and displays no relation to any studied parameters with the exception of comet separati…
The CONSERT operations planning process for the Rosetta mission
Altobelli, Nicolas; Vallat, Claire; Hubault, Armelle +28 more
The COmet Nucleus Sounding Experiment by Radio wave Transmission (CONSERT / Rosetta) has been designed to sound the interior of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This instrument consists of two parts: one onboard Rosetta and the other one onboard Philae. A good CONSERT science measurement sequence requires joint operations of both spacecrafts i…
The Philae Lander: Science planning and operations
Bibring, Jean-Pierre; Jurado, Eric; Ulamec, Stephan +13 more
Rosetta is an ambitious mission launched in March 2004 to study comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It is composed of a space probe (Rosetta) and the Philae Lander. The mission is a series of premieres: among others, first probe to escort a comet, first time a landing site is selected with short turnaround time, first time a lander has landed on a co…
Data processing and visualisation in the Rosetta Science Ground Segment
Geiger, Bernhard
Rosetta is the first space mission to rendezvous with a comet. The spacecraft encountered its target 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014 and currently escorts the comet through a complete activity cycle during perihelion passage. The Rosetta Science Ground Segment (RSGS) is in charge of planning and coordinating the observations carried out by the s…
Rosetta-Philae RF link, challenging communications from a comet
Dudal, Clément; Loisel, Céline
The Rosetta spacecraft reached the vicinity of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014 and released the lander Philae for an in-situ analysis through 10 scientific instruments. The analysis of the lander RF link telemetry reveals major information on the lander orientation and its near environment during the 50-h mission on the comet. The Phil…
A new terminal guidance sensor system for asteroid intercept or rendezvous missions
Lyzhoft, Joshua; Basart, John; Wie, Bong
This paper presents the initial conceptual study results of a new terminal guidance sensor system for asteroid intercept or rendezvous missions, which explores the use of visual, infrared, and radar devices. As was demonstrated by NASA's Deep Impact mission, visual cameras can be effectively utilized for hypervelocity intercept terminal guidance f…
Ptolemy operations at the surface of a comet, from planning to reality
Andrews, D. J.; Sheridan, S.; Wright, I. P. +3 more
Ptolemy is a Gas Chromatograph-Isotope Ratio-Mass Spectrometer (GC-IR-MS) aboard the Philae lander element of the Rosetta mission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Developed to determine the chemical and stable light isotopic composition of cometary material, Ptolemy was conceived as a highly flexible instrument able to accommodate changes in op…