| | | Rosetta at a glance
Description
Rosetta is a Cornerstone mission in the European Space Agency's Horizons 2000 long term scientific programme. It comprises a large orbiter, which is designed to operate for a decade at large distances from the Sun, and a small lander. Each of these carries a large complement of scientific experiments designed to complete the most detailed study of a comet ever attempted.
Objectives
ESA's Rosetta spacecraft will be the first to undertake the long-term exploration of a comet at close quarters. After entering orbit around Comet Wirtanen in 2011, the spacecraft will release a small lander onto the icy nucleus, then spend the next two years orbiting the comet as it heads towards the Sun. On the way to Comet Wirtanen, Rosetta will receive gravity assists from the Earth and Mars, and fly past two main belt asteroids (Otawara and Siwa).
How The mission was named
Rosetta was named after the Rosetta Stone, which enabled linguists to discover the secrets of ancient Egypt by deciphering hieroglyphics for the first time. In a similar way, the Rosetta spacecraft will give vital clues to scientists seeking to discover the secrets of how the planets formed and the origin of life itself.
Industrial involvement
Prime contractor - Astrium, Germany, the leader of an industrial team involving more than 50 contractors from 14 European countries and the United States. There is also Canadian participation in the ESA 35 m Deep Space Antenna in Australia.
Launch date: 13 January 2003
Launcher: Ariane 5
Spacecraft
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Launch Mass: | Approximately 3,000 kg (fully fuelled) including 1670 kg of propellant, 165 kg of scientific payload for the orbiter and the lander weights 100 kg |
| Dimensions: | Main spacecraft 2.8 m x 2.1 m x 2.0 m, on which all subsystems and payload equipment are mounted. Two 14 metre long solar panels with a total area of 64 square metres.
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Payload - Orbiter
| ALICE: | Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (S. A. Stern, SwRI, Boulder, Co., USA)
| | CONSERT: | Comet Nucleus Sounding (W. Kofman, LPG, Grenoble, France)
| | COSIMA: | Cometary Secondary Ion Mass Analyser (J. Kissel, MPE, Garching, Germany)
| | GIADA: | Grain Impact Analyser and Dust Accumulator (L Colangeli, Oss. Astronomico di Capodimonte , Naples, Italy)
| | MIDAS: | Micro-Imaging Analysis System (W. Riedler, IWF, Graz, Austria)
| | MIRO: | Microwave Instrument for the Rosetta Orbiter (S. Gulkis, NASA-JPL, Pasadena, Ca., USA)
| | OSIRIS: | Rosetta Orbiter Imaging System (H.U. Keller, MPAe, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany)
| | ROSINA: | Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (H. Balsiger, Univ. of Bern, Switzerland)
| | RPC: | Rosetta Plasma Consortium (A. Eriksson, Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala, Sweden; J. Burch, SwRI, San Antonio, Tx., USA; K-H Glassmeier, TU Braunschweig, Germany; R. Lundin, Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Kiruna, Sweden; J. G. Trotignon, LPCE/CNRS, Orleans, France; C. Carr, Imperial College, UK)
| | RSI: | Radio Science Investigation (M. Pätzold, Univ. Cologne, Cologne, Germany)
| | VIRTIS: | Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (A. Coradini, IASFC, Rome, Italy) |
Payload - Lander
| APXS: | Alpha Proton X-ray Spectrometer (R. Rieder, MPCH, Mainz, Germany) |
| ÇIVA / ROLIS: | Rosetta Lander Imaging System (J. P. Bibring, IAS, Orsay, France; S. Mottola, DLR, Berlin,Germany)
CONSERT – Comet Nucleus Sounding (W. Kofman, LPG, Grenoble, France) |
| COSAC: | Cometary Sampling and Composition experiment (H. Rosenbauer, MPAe, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany) |
| MODULUS PTOLEMY: | Evolved Gas Analyser (I.Wright, Open University, UK) |
| MUPUS: | Multi-Purpose Sensor for Surface and Subsurface Science (T. Spohn, Univ. of Münster Germany) |
| ROMAP: | RoLand Magnetometer and Plasma Monitor (U. Auster, DLR, Berlin, Germany; I. Apathy, KFKI, Budapest, Hungary) |
| SD2: | Sample and Distribution Device (A. Ercoli Finzi, Polytecnico, Milano, Italy) |
| SESAME: | Surface Electrical and Acoustic Monitoring Experiment, Dust Impact Monitor (D. Möhlmann, DLR, Cologne,Germany; W. Schmidt, FMI, Helsinki, Finland; I. Apathy, KFKI, Budapest, Hungary) |
Orbit:
Interplanetary, out to 5.25 AU (about 790 million km from the Sun).
Mission Timeline
| Launch: | 13 January 2003
(Central European Time) |
| Mars gravity assist: | 26 August 2005 |
| First Earth gravity assist: | 28 November 2005 |
| Asteroid Otawara flyby: | 11 July 2006 |
| Second Earth gravity assist: | 28 November 2007 |
| Asteroid Siwa flyby: | 24 July 2008 |
| Comet Wirtanen rendezvous: | 29 November 2011 |
| Comet mapping/characterisation: | May-June 2012 |
| Landing on the comet: | July 2012 |
| Escorting the comet: | July 2012 – July 2013 |
| Nominal end of mission: | 10 July 2013 |
Operations
Mission Operations Centre: European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), Darmstadt, Germany
Prime Ground Station: New Norcia, near Perth, Australia
Science Operations Centre: Co-located at ESOC (Darmstadt, Germany) and ESTEC (Noordwijk, Netherlands)
Lander Control Centre: DLR, Cologne, Germany
Lander Science Centre: CNES, Toulouse, France
Planned Operational Duration: 10.5 years
Cost:
701 Million Euros at 2000 economic conditions (including launch and operations).
| | Last update: 12 December 2002 |  |
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