[meteorite-list] NASA Instruments Begin Science on Rosetta Spacecraft Set to Land on Comet

[Ron Baalke]

June 10, 2014
     
NASA Instruments Begin Science on European Spacecraft Set to Land on Comet

Three NASA science instruments aboard the European Space Agency's (ESA) 
Rosetta spacecraft, which is set to become the first to orbit a comet and 
land a probe on its nucleus, are beginning observations and sending science 
data back to Earth.

Launched in March 2004, Rosetta was reactivated January 2014 after a record 
957 days in hibernation. Composed of an orbiter and lander, Rosetta's 
objective is to arrive at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in August to study 
the celestial object up close in unprecedented detail and prepare for landing 
a probe on the comet's nucleus in November.

Rosetta's lander will obtain the first images taken from a comet's 
surface and 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. Observations 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.

"We are happy to be seeing some real zeroes and ones coming down from our 
instruments, and cannot wait to figure out what they are telling us," said 
Claudia Alexander, Rosetta's U.S. project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion 
Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. "Never before has a spacecraft 
pulled up and parked next to a comet. That is what Rosetta will do, and we 
are delighted to play a part in such a historic mission of exploration."

Rosetta currently is approaching the main asteroid belt located between 
Jupiter and Mars,. The spacecraft is still about 300,000 miles (500,000 
kilometers) from the comet, but in August the instruments will begin to map 
its surface.

The three U.S. instruments aboard the spacecraft are the Microwave Instrument 
for Rosetta Orbiter (MIRO), an ultraviolet spectrometer called Alice, and the 
Ion and Electron Sensor (IES). They are part of a suite of 11 science 
instruments aboard the Rosetta orbiter.

MIRO is designed to provide data on how gas and dust leave the surface of the 
nucleus to form the coma and tail that gives comets their intrinsic beauty. 
Studying the surface temperature and evolution of the coma and tail provides 
information on how the comet evolves as it approaches and leaves the vicinity 
of the sun.

Alice will analyze gases in the comet's coma, which is the bright envelope of 
gas around the nucleus of the comet developed 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.

IES 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 for 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 in space with sufficient resolution to be able to 
distinguish between molecular nitrogen and carbon monoxide, two molecules 
with approximately the same mass. Clear identification of nitrogen will help 
scientists understand conditions at the time the solar system was formed.

U.S. scientists are partnering on several non-U.S. instruments and are 
involved in seven of the mission's 21 instrument collaborations. NASA's Deep 
Space Network (DSN) is supporting ESA's Ground Station Network for spacecraft 
tracking and navigation.

Rosetta is an ESA mission with contributions from its member states and NASA. 
Rosetta's Philae lander is provided by a consortium led by the German 
Aerospace Center, Cologne; Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, 
Gottingen; French National Space Agency, Paris; and the Italian Space 
Agency, Rome. JPL manages the U.S. contribution of the Rosetta mission for 
NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL also built the MIRO and 
hosts its principal investigator, Samuel Gulkis. The Southwest Research 
Institute (San Antonio and Boulder), developed the Rosetta orbiter's IES and 
Alice instruments, and hosts their principal investigators, James Burch (IES) 
and Alan Stern (Alice).

For more information on the U.S. instruments aboard Rosetta, visit:

http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov 

More information about Rosetta is available at:

http://www.esa.int/rosetta 

For more information on the DSN, visit:

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

-end-

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

DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
agle at jpl.nasa.gov 

Markus Bauer
European Space Agency, Noordwijk, Netherlands
011-31-71-565-6799
markus.bauer at esa.int