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Composition Measurements of a Comet from the Rosetta Orbiter Spacecraft
Alexander, C.; Gulkis, S.
The European Space Agency (ESA) Rosetta Spacecraft, launched on March 2, 2004 toward Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (C-G), carries a complementary set of instruments on both the orbiter and lander (Philae) portions of the spacecraft, to measure the composition of the Comet C-G. The primary composition measuring instruments on the Orbiter are Alic…
Rapporteur Paper on the Composition of Comets
Altwegg, Kathrin
The ISSI workshop on “Origin and evolution of comet nuclei” had the goal to put together recent scientific findings concerning the “life” of a comet from the formation of the material in a dark molecular cloud to the accretion in the early solar system, from cometesimals to comet nuclei which were shaped and altered by cosmic rays, by radioisotopi…
The Rosetta Mission: Flying Towards the Origin of the Solar System
Richter, Ingo; Glassmeier, Karl-Heinz; Kührt, Ekkehard +2 more
The ROSETTA Mission, the Planetary Cornerstone Mission in the European Space Agency's long-term programme Horizon 2000, will rendezvous in 2014 with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko close to its aphelion and will study the physical and chemical properties of the nucleus, the evolution of the coma during the comet's approach to the Sun, and the deve…
Rosina Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis
Livi, S.; Wurz, P.; Bochsler, P. +47 more
The Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) will answer important questions posed by the mission’s main objectives. After Giotto, this will be the first time the volatile part of a comet will be analyzed in situ. This is a very important investigation, as comets, in contrast to meteorites, have maintained most of the vol…
OSIRIS The Scientific Camera System Onboard Rosetta
Jorda, L.; Llebaria, A.; Lara, L. M. +66 more
The Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System OSIRIS is the scientific camera system onboard the Rosetta spacecraft (Figure 1). The advanced high performance imaging system will be pivotal for the success of the Rosetta mission. OSIRIS will detect 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from a distance of more than 106 km, characteri…
Virtis: An Imaging Spectrometer for the Rosetta Mission
Langevin, Y.; Rauer, H.; Bellucci, G. +42 more
The VIRTIS (Visual IR Thermal Imaging Spectrometer) experiment has been one of the most successful experiments built in Europe for Planetary Exploration. VIRTIS, developed in cooperation among Italy, France and Germany, has been already selected as a key experiment for 3 planetary missions: the ESA-Rosetta and Venus Express and NASA-Dawn. VIRTIS o…
RPC-MAG The Fluxgate Magnetometer in the ROSETTA Plasma Consortium
Motschmann, Uwe; Richter, Ingo; Carr, Chris +11 more
The fluxgate magnetometer experiment onboard the ROSETTA spacecraft aims to measure the magnetic field in the interaction region of the solar wind plasma with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It consists of a system of two ultra light (about 28 g each ) triaxial fluxgate magnetometer sensors, mounted on the 1.5 m long spacecraft boom. The measurem…
RPC: The Rosetta Plasma Consortium
Lundin, R.; Balogh, A.; Nilsson, H. +18 more
The Rosetta Plasma Consortium (RPC) will make in-situ measurements of the plasma environment of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The consortium will provide the complementary data sets necessary for an understanding of the plasma processes in the inner coma, and the structure and evolution of the coma with the increasing cometary activity. Five se…
Cosima High Resolution Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer for the Analysis of Cometary Dust Particles onboard Rosetta
Langevin, Y.; Altwegg, K.; Krüger, H. +38 more
The ESA mission Rosetta, launched on March 2nd, 2004, carries an instrument suite to the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The COmetary Secondary Ion Mass Anaylzer - COSIMA - is one of three cometary dust analyzing instruments onboard Rosetta. COSIMA is based on the analytic measurement method of secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). The experime…
MIRO: Microwave Instrument for Rosetta Orbiter
Rauer, H.; Hartogh, P.; Lellouch, E. +30 more
The European Space Agency Rosetta Spacecraft, launched on March 2, 2004 toward Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, carries a relatively small and lightweight millimeter-submillimeter spectrometer instrument, the first of its kind launched into deep space. The instrument will be used to study the evolution of outgassing water and other molecules from …