[meteorite-list] Heavy Metal Rock Set to Take the Stage (Rosetta/Asteroid Lutetia)

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Jul 2010 16:17:50 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201007092317.o69NHoNK007631_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-228

Heavy Metal Rock Set to Take the Stage
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
July 09, 2010

PASADENA, Calif. - On its way to a 2014 rendezvous with comet
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the European Space Agency's Rosetta
spacecraft, with NASA instruments aboard, will fly past asteroid Lutetia
this Saturday, July 10.

The instruments aboard Rosetta will record the first close-up image of a
metal asteroid. They will also make measurements to help scientists
derive the mass of the object, understand the properties of the
asteroid's surface crust, record the solar wind in the vicinity and look
for evidence of an atmosphere. The spacecraft will pass the asteroid at
a minimum distance of 3,160 kilometers (1,950 miles) and at a velocity
of 15 kilometers (9 miles) per second.

"Little is known about asteroid Lutetia other than it is about 100
kilometers (62 miles) wide," said Claudia Alexander, project scientist
for the U.S. role in the Rosetta mission, from NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Allowing Rosetta's suite of science
instruments to focus on this target of opportunity should greatly expand
our knowledge of this huge space rock, while at the same time giving the
mission's science instruments a real out-of-this-world workout."

Previous images of Lutetia were taken by ground-based telescopes and
show only hints of the asteroid's shape. Lutetia will be the second
asteroid to receive the full attention of Rosetta and its instruments.
The spacecraft previously flew within 800 kilometers (500 miles) of
asteroid Steins in September of 2008. The Lutetia flyby is the final
scientific milestone for Rosetta before controllers put the spacecraft
into hibernation early in 2011, only to wake up in early 2014 for
approach to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

NASA has contributed an ultraviolet instrument (Alice); a plasma
instrument (the Ion and Electron Sensor); a microwave instrument
(Microwave Instrument for the Rosetta Orbiter); and portions of the
electronics package for the double focusing mass spectrometer of the
Rosetta orbiter sensor for ion and neutral analysis (ROSINA), among
other contributions to this international mission. NASA's Deep Space
Network, managed by JPL, will be providing support for tracking and
science operations.

One hundred and fifteen elementary school students will be at JPL during
the flyby. The students will view close-up images of Lutetia, talk to
the U.S. Rosetta project manager and participate in educational
activities. The U.S. Rosetta project leaders hope to use this event as a
kickoff of more coordinated activities with selected schools around the
United States.

JPL manages NASA's participation in the Rosetta mission. Learn more
about NASA's contribution to Rosetta at: http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov.

Priscilla Amador 818-354-1357
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
priscilla.r.amador at jpl.nasa.gov

Jocelyne Landeau-Constantin 011-49-6151-90-2696
European Space Agency, Darmstadt, Germany
jlc at esa.int

2010-228
Received on Fri 09 Jul 2010 07:17:50 PM PDT