[meteorite-list] NASA Instruments on European Comet Spacecraft Begin Activation Countdown (Rosetta)

[Ron Baalke]

January 24, 2014

Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov 

DC Agle / Jia-Rui Cook
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011 / 818-354-0850
agle at jpl.nasa.gov / jia-rui.c.cook at jpl.nasa.gov 

Markus Bauer
European Space Agency, Noordwijk, Netherlands
31-71-565-6799
markus.bauer at esa.int
     
RELEASE 14-033
     
NASA Instruments on European Comet Spacecraft Begin Activation Countdown

Three NASA science instruments are being prepared for check-out operations  
aboard the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft, which is set to become  
the first to orbit a comet and land a probe on its nucleus in November.

Rosetta was reactivated Jan. 20 after a record 957 days in hibernation. U.S.  
mission managers are scheduled to activate their instruments on the  
spacecraft in early March and begin science operations with them in August.  
The instruments are an ultraviolet imaging spectrograph, a microwave  
thermometer and a plasma analyzer.

"U.S. scientists are delighted the Rosetta mission gives us a chance to  
examine a comet in a way we've never seen one before -- in orbit around it  
and as it kicks up in activity," said Claudia Alexander, Rosetta's U.S.  
project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena,  
Calif. "The NASA suite of instruments will provide puzzle pieces the  
Rosetta science team as a whole will put together with the other pieces to  
paint a portrait of how a comet works and what it's made of."

Rosetta's objective is to observe the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko up  
close. By examining the full composition of the comet's nucleus, and the ways  
in which a comet changes, Rosetta will help scientists learn more about the  
origin and evolution of our solar system and the role comets may have played  
in seeding Earth with water, and perhaps even life.

The ultraviolet imaging spectrograph, called Alice, will analyze gases in the  
tail of the comet, as well as the coma, the fuzzy envelope around the nucleus  
of the comet. The coma develops as a comet approaches the sun. Alice also  
will measure the rate at which the comet produces water, carbon monoxide and  
carbon dioxide. These measurements will provide valuable information about  
the surface composition of the nucleus. The instrument also will measure the  
amount of argon present, an important clue about the temperature of the solar  
system at the time the comet's nucleus originally formed more than 4.6  
billion years ago.

The Microwave Instrument for Rosetta Orbiter will identify chemicals on or  
near the comet's surface and measure the temperature of the chemicals and the  
dust and ice jetting out from the comet. The instrument also will see the  
gaseous activity in the tail through coma.

The Ion and Electron Sensor is part of a suite of five instruments to analyze  
the plasma environment of the comet, particularly the coma. The instrument  
will measure the charged particles in the sun's outer atmosphere, or solar  
wind, as they interact with the gas flowing out from the comet while Rosetta  
is drawing nearer to the comet's nucleus.

NASA also provided part of the electronics package the Double Focusing Mass  
Spectrometer, which is part of the Swiss-built Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer  
for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) instrument. ROSINA will be the first  
instrument with sufficient resolution to separate two molecules with  
approximately the same mass: molecular nitrogen and carbon monoxide. Clear  
identification of nitrogen will help scientists understand conditions at the  
time the solar system was born.

U.S. science investigators are partnering on several non-U.S. instruments and  
are involved in seven of the mission's 21 instrument collaborations. NASA has  
an American interdisciplinary scientist involved in the research. NASA's Deep  
Space Network (DSN) is supporting the European Space Agency's (ESA's) Ground  
Station Network for spacecraft tracking and navigation.

Rosetta, composed of an orbiter and lander, is flying beyond the main  
asteroid belt. Its lander will obtain the first images taken from the surface  
of a comet, and it will provide the first analysis of a comet's composition  
by drilling into the surface. Rosetta also will be the first spacecraft to  
witness, at close proximity, how a comet changes as it is subjected to the  
increasing intensity of the sun's radiation.

The potential research and data from the Rosetta mission could help inform  
NASA's asteroid initiative -- a mission to identify, capture and relocate an  
asteroid for astronauts to explore. The initiative represents an  
unprecedented technological feat that will lead to new scientific discoveries  
and technological capabilities that will help protect our home planet and  
achieve the goal of sending humans to an asteroid by 2025.

"Future robotic and human exploration missions to Mars, an asteroid and  
beyond will be accomplished via international partnerships combining  
worldwide scientific and engineering expertise," said Jim Green, director of  
NASA's Planetary Science Division in Washington. "Rosetta will provide an  
opportunity to study a small new world that could inform us on the best ways  
to approach, orbit, and capture our target asteroid for a future human  
mission."

The solar-powered spacecraft was placed into a deep sleep in June 2011, to  
conserve energy during the portion of its trajectory that carried it past the  
orbit of Jupiter. During Rosetta's hibernation, all instruments and  
subsystems were shut off, except for the main computer including a spacecraft  
clock and a few heaters. ESA mission managers are beginning to commission the  
spacecraft and its instruments.

"The successful wake-up of Rosetta from its long, lonely slumber is a  
testament to the teams that built and operate the spacecraft, and the  
international cooperation between ESA and NASA ensured that we had some of  
the world's largest deep space dishes available to relay the first signal  
back to Earth," said Mark McCaughrean, senior scientific advisor in ESA's  
Directorate of Science and Robotic Exploration. "There is still a lot of work  
ahead of us before the exciting comet rendezvous, escort, and landing phase,  
but it's great to be back online."

ESA member states and NASA contributed to the Rosetta mission. Airbus Defense  
and Space built the Rosetta spacecraft. JPL manages the US contribution of  
the Rosetta mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL  
also built the Microwave Instrument for the Rosetta Orbiter and hosts its  
principal investigator, Samuel Gulkis. The Southwest Research Institute in  
San Antonio developed the Rosetta orbiter's Ion and Electron Sensor (IES) and  
hosts its principal investigator, James Burch. The Southwest Research  
Institute in Boulder, Colo., developed the Alice instrument and hosts its  
principal investigator, Alan Stern.

An audio replay of a media teleconference held Friday with NASA and ESA  
officials discussing the mission is available until Jan. 31. The call in  
number is 800-839-2235.

For information on the U.S. instruments, visit:

http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov 

More information about Rosetta is available online at:

http://www.esa.int/rosetta 

For more information on the DSN, visit:

http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn 

For more information on NASA's asteroid initiative, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/asteroidinitiative 

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