[meteorite-list] Lockheed Martin Space Instrument To Study Role of Comets in Formation of Solar System

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:31:26 2004
Message-ID: <200402231709.JAA14225_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://lmms.external.lmco.com/newsbureau/pressreleases/04.08.html

LOCKHEED MARTIN SPACE INSTRUMENT TO STUDY ROLE OF COMETS IN FORMATION OF
SOLAR SYSTEM

Lockheed Martin Press Release
February 23, 2004

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- The Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT)
Advanced Technology Center (ATC) in Palo Alto, Calif. designed and built key
components for ROSINA -- the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and
Neutral Analysis -- an instrument ready for launch on Feb. 26, 2004 on the
European Space Agency?s (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft. The goal of the
international mission is to rendezvous, orbit, and land on Comet
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014, in an effort to answer questions about
the origin of our Solar System.

"Rosetta carries more instruments than any previous scientific spacecraft --
that makes it challenging and one of the most exciting missions ever," said
Dr. Claudia Alexander, U.S. Project Scientist for the mission and NASA Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) scientist. "We anticipate major discoveries,
just like Galileo and Cassini."

Comets are icy preserves of the material present during the formation of the
solar system. Ground-based studies show strong indications that beneath the
surface, complex organic molecules, such as hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and
nitrogen reside. These elements make up nucleic and amino acids, which are
essential for creating life. Scientists have long wondered if life on Earth
was spawned by a chance comet encounter, and Lockheed Martin helped develop
ROSINA with the University of Bern and other institutions to pursue the
answer.

ESA's spacecraft aims to be the Rosetta Stone of the solar system -- the
decipherer of the many secrets comets hold in their cores -- and is named
for the historic Rosetta Stone, the key to decoding the hieroglyphics of
ancient Egypt. Only an instrument like the one designed by the international
team including Lockheed Martin could test the various theories regarding
comets' physical and chemical composition, mass, surface and evolution.

ROSINA will perform composition analysis on the Rosetta mission, utilizing a
mass spectrometer that uses electric and magnetic fields to map the mass of
an ion to its chemical composition. ROSINA will also analyze particles in
the comet?s atmosphere by mass, physical and chemical composition,
temperature, and velocity. Such data will yield important insights about the
formation, position and origin of comets, and the similarities between
cometary and interstellar material present during the birth of the solar
system.

The highest resolution mass spectrometer ever flown, ROSINA will measure the
isotopes Carbon 12 and Carbon 13, which differ by a single neutron, and are
used in carbon dating to determine the ages of organisms.

"The Carbon 12 to Carbon 13 ratio in a comet tells us about the material
that was present in the dense interstellar medium that formed our Sun. Only
comets have this information frozen within them," said Dr. Stephen Fuselier
of Lockheed Martin's ATC and U.S. lead co-investigator for the ROSINA
instrument.

"One of the mission's most exciting pieces of information will come from the
ROSINA instrument," said Alexander. ?ROSINA will perform carbon dating on
the comet's nucleus. One of the things that we don't know is whether comets
were part of our solar system in the beginning. Determining the age of this
comet?s surface will help us to discover their role in solar system
formation and whether they brought particles in from the outside."

"ROSINA will also determine the metal content of the interstellar medium
that formed our Sun by using the Carbon 12 and 13, and carbon monoxide and
nitrogen ratios found inside comets," said Fuselier. "If it is very metal
rich, we know our Sun is not a second generation star because the Big Bang
only created hydrogen and helium. By determining the metalloids inside the
comet, we can also deduce the size of the star that created our Sun."

The ATC is a unit of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, which is one of
the major operating units of Lockheed Martin Corporation. Space Systems
designs, develops, tests, manufactures, and operates a variety of advanced
technology systems for military, civil and commercial customers. Chief
products include a full-range of space launch systems, including heavy-lift
capability, ground systems, remote sensing and communications satellites for
commercial and government customers, advanced space observatories and
interplanetary spacecraft, fleet ballistic missiles and missile defense
systems.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin employs about 130,000 people
worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development,
manufacture and integration of advanced technology systems, products and
services. The corporation reported 2003 sales of $31.8 billion.

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Media Contact: Buddy Nelson (510) 797-0349
               E-mail: buddynelson_at_mac.com
Received on Mon 23 Feb 2004 12:09:06 PM PST