Date: 04 December 2013 Satellite: Rosetta Copyright: ESA–C. Carreau/ATG ...
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| Date: 04 December 2013 Satellite: Rosetta Copyright: ESA–C. Carreau/ATG medialab |
The spacecraft is named after the Rosetta Stone, an inscribed basalt tablet discovered in 1799 near the Egyptian port city of Rachid (Rosetta) by Captain Pierre-François Bouchard of the Napoleonic Army.
The comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko was discovered in 1969 by Kiev based astronomer Klim Churyumov. Launched in March 2004, Rosetta's mission objective is to rendezvous with the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014.
Rosetta is the first solar-powered probe to fly beyond the orbit of Mars. It is powered by specially developed solar cells optimised for very low light intensity and very low temperatures.
With a total wingspan of 32.7 metres, its solar panels will generate 440 watts of electricity. Rosetta is currently some 807 million kilometres away from Earth, but the total distance it has covered since launch aboard an Ariane 5 launcher from Kourou (French Guiana) on 2 March 2004 amounts to over 6.2 billion kilometres. The probe is now a mere nine million kilometres or so from its target, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
The Rosetta mission will help scientists to understand how our solar system formed from primordial matter some 4.6 billion years ago. While the matter that ended up in the solar system’s planets has been transformed by the actions of solar radiation and geological processes, comets preserve this matter in its original state.
Rosetta will orbit the comet at a distance of one kilometre for nearly two years, studying the comet’s nucleus and its environment, and a lander named Philae will be released for rendevzous to carry out surface-science investigations and analyses on Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Orbiter has a launch mass of 2,900 kg (6,400 lb) and lander has 100 kg (220 lb). Payload mass of Orbiter is 165 kg (364 lb) and that of Lander is 27 kg (60 lb). Rosetta is expected to enter a slow orbit around the comet during May 2014 and gradually slow down to release the lander in Nov 2014. During orbiting, the scientists will be able to study the surface of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, and select a suitable place for the Philae lander to land using cameras onboard the orbiter.
Designed with an operating life of six months, the lander will carry out tests on the mysterious matter of comets. As the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko will be getting closer and closer to the Sun and the rising temperatures will cause more and more matter to vaporise, forming the comet’s signature tail, how long Philae will be able to withstand this turbulent ride is unknown.
The Rosetta probe is designed and built by Airbus Defence and Space (formerly Astrium) for the European Space Agency (ESA) the project was run from Friedrichshafen. Astrium UK was responsible for the architectural design of the Rosetta platform, the solar panels and the complex propulsion system, while Astrium France supplied the avionics and Astrium Spain the medium gain antenna system. In total, an industrial team comprising more than 50 subcontractors from 15 countries are involved in the Rosetta mission.
