Search Publications
A method for inverting the touchdown shock of the Philae lander on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Arnold, Walter; Seidensticker, Klaus J.; Fischer, Hans-Herbert +7 more
The landing of Philae on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is scheduled for November 12th, 2014. Each of the three landing feet houses in one sole a tri-axial acceleration sensor of the Comet Acoustic Surface Sounding Experiment (CASSE). They will thus be the first sensors to be in mechanical contact with the comet surface. CASSE will be in listenin…
Variations in the 3.3 µm feature and carbonaceous dust in AKARI data
Hammonds, M.; Mori, T.; Usui, F. +1 more
A wealth of near infrared spectroscopic data for a large number of galactic objects was recorded with AKARI during its active lifetime. The hydrocarbon emission features around 3.3 - 3.5 m are modelled here as a series of 6 Voigt profiles arising due to hydrogen atoms found in different molecular structures within the emitting spectroscopic carrie…
Variegation and space weathering on asteroid 21 Lutetia
Keller, H. U.; Mottola, S.; Preusker, F. +4 more
During the flyby in 2010, the OSIRIS camera on-board Rosetta acquired hundreds of high-resolution images of asteroid Lutetia's surface through a range of narrow-band filters. While Lutetia appears very bland in the visible wavelength range, Magrin et al. (2012) tentatively identified UV color variations in the Baetica cluster, a group of relativel…
Thermal structure of Venus' nightside mesosphere as observed by infrared heterodyne spectroscopy at 10 µm
Sonnabend, Guido; Sornig, Manuela; Stangier, Tobias +4 more
Ground-based heterodyne spectroscopy is used to observe the night side of Venus by probing single pressure broadened CO2 absorption lines. From the pressure induced line broadening, the predominant temperature at different altitude layers can be deduced. It is found, that heterodyne spectroscopy is sensitive to probe the mesosphere betw…
Proton and alpha particle precipitation onto the upper atmosphere of Venus
Fedorov, A.; Barabash, S.; Futaana, Y. +5 more
We study the precipitation of protons and alpha-particles onto the upper atmosphere of Venus, using particle data recorded by the Venus Express spacecraft inside the induced magnetosphere. Our investigations are limited to the dayside close to the terminator. We observe on average a net downward flux of protons, which originate partly from the pla…
Mapping Mars: Geodetic and cartographic aspects
Statella, Thiago
This paper presents a review of geodetic and cartographic aspects involved in the mapping of Mars and in the handling of planetary data returned and available from different team missions. It focuses on the reference system adopted for the planet, the main coordinate systems being used and main projection systems adopted when representing the data…
Indian Mars-Colour-Camera captures far-side of the Deimos: A rarity among contemporary Mars orbiters
Chauhan, Prakash; Arya, A. S.; Manthira Moorthi, S. +10 more
Mars and Deimos are tidally locked so one would always get to view the same side of Deimos from Mars. Most of the contemporary functional satellites orbiting Mars viz. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter , Mars Express, Mars Odyssey, MAVEN etc. are positioned between Mars and Deimos, hence they always view only one side of Deimos i.e the Mars-side, while …
CONSERT line-of-sight link budget simulator
Plettemeier, Dirk; Kofman, Wlodek; Herique, Alain +4 more
In bistatic radar systems utilizing elliptical polarization on both the sending and receiving side, great care must be taken to correctly calculate the received power, as a mismatch in polarization may incur significant additional losses. In this paper, we present a method to simulate the link budget of the CONSERT instrument aboard the Rosetta mi…
Gamma rays and cosmic rays at Venus: The Pioneer Venus gamma ray detector and considerations for future measurements
Lorenz, Ralph D.; Lawrence, David J.
We draw attention to, and present a summary archive of the data from, the Pioneer Venus Orbiter Gamma-ray Burst Detector (OGBD), an instrument not originally conceived with Venus science in mind. We consider the possibility of gamma-ray flashes generated by lightning and model the propagation of gamma rays in the Venusian atmosphere, finding that …
Focal lengths of Venus Monitoring Camera from limb locations
Limaye, Sanjay S.; Roatsch, T.; Markiewicz, W. J. +3 more
The Venus Monitoring Camera (VMC) carried by European Space Agency's Venus Express orbiter (Svedhem et al., 2007) consists of four optical units, each with a separate filter casting an image on a single CCD (Markiewicz et al., 2007a, 2007b). The desire to capture as much of the planet in a single frame during the spacecraft's 24 h, 0.84 eccentrici…