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

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Jul 2010 20:10:38 -0500
Message-ID: <46149906639641C59D0CB8D98179C875_at_ATARIENGINE2>

>From the information in this, it seems that
the image size of Lutetia will be only marginally
bigger than that of Steins, no more than 70 pixels,
apparently (unless they're using a different way
of imaging the asteroid).

Sterling K. Webb
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Baalke" <baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Friday, July 09, 2010 6:17 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Heavy Metal Rock Set to Take the
Stage(Rosetta/Asteroid Lutetia)


>
> 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
>
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Received on Fri 09 Jul 2010 09:10:38 PM PDT