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GIADA: The Grain Impact Analyser and Dust Accumulator for the Rosetta space mission

Lopez Moreno, J. J.; Rodriguez, J.; Colangeli, L. +13 more

The ESA ROSETTA mission will perform a rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and will follow and study it from about 3.25 AU to perihelion at 1.34 AU and, during the foreseen extended mission, up to 2 AU post-perihelion, in order to observe for the first time the onset of activity of a comet and to follow its evolution. The GIADA (Grain …

A sensor to perform in-situ thermal conductivity determination of cometary and asteroid material

Banaszkiewicz, M.; Seweryn, K.; Wawrzaszek, R.

Measurements of the physical properties of surface and subsurface layers of planetary bodies often provide important information about the structure of the medium and processes that occur there. Thermal properties of the subsurface material of cometary nuclei are crucial in determining the heat and gas transport. Similarly, asteroids' regolith is …

Risk of dust particle impacts during the Rosetta asteroid fly-bys

Rossi, A.; Fulchignoni, M.

On its course to the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Rosetta will fly past two main belt asteroids: 2867 Steins and 21 Lutetia. In order to explore the possible risks of impact between the Rosetta probe and particles orbiting 21 Lutetia, the asteroid's dynamical environment is studied. Stable retrograde, nearly equatorial orbits, for small partic…

The COSAC experiment of the Rosetta mission: Performance under representative conditions and expected scientific return

Rosenbauer, H.; Szopa, C.; Goesmann, F. +2 more

The Cometary Sampling and Composition (COSAC) experiment is a combined gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer onboard the Philae cometary surface probe of the Rosetta mission. Its goal is to analyse, directly at the surface of a comet, the molecular and elemental compositions of the cometary nucleus samples collected by the probe. The present article…