[meteorite-list] NASA Instruments on European Comet Spacecraft Begin Activation Countdown (Rosetta)

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2014 12:40:32 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201401242040.s0OKeWla018369_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

January 24, 2014

Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov

DC Agle / Jia-Rui Cook
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011 / 818-354-0850
agle at jpl.nasa.gov / jia-rui.c.cook at jpl.nasa.gov

Markus Bauer
European Space Agency, Noordwijk, Netherlands
31-71-565-6799
markus.bauer at esa.int
     
RELEASE 14-033
     
NASA Instruments on European Comet Spacecraft Begin Activation Countdown

Three NASA science instruments are being prepared for check-out operations
aboard the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft, which is set to become
the first to orbit a comet and land a probe on its nucleus in November.

Rosetta was reactivated Jan. 20 after a record 957 days in hibernation. U.S.
mission managers are scheduled to activate their instruments on the
spacecraft in early March and begin science operations with them in August.
The instruments are an ultraviolet imaging spectrograph, a microwave
thermometer and a plasma analyzer.

"U.S. scientists are delighted the Rosetta mission gives us a chance to
examine a comet in a way we've never seen one before -- in orbit around it
and as it kicks up in activity," said Claudia Alexander, Rosetta's U.S.
project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena,
Calif. "The NASA suite of instruments will provide puzzle pieces the
Rosetta science team as a whole will put together with the other pieces to
paint a portrait of how a comet works and what it's made of."

Rosetta's objective is to observe the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko up
close. By examining the full composition of the comet's nucleus, and the ways
in which a comet changes, Rosetta will help scientists learn more about the
origin and evolution of our solar system and the role comets may have played
in seeding Earth with water, and perhaps even life.

The ultraviolet imaging spectrograph, called Alice, will analyze gases in the
tail of the comet, as well as the coma, the fuzzy envelope around the nucleus
of the comet. The coma develops as a comet approaches the sun. Alice also
will measure the rate at which the comet produces water, carbon monoxide and
carbon dioxide. These measurements will provide valuable information about
the surface composition of the nucleus. The instrument also will measure the
amount of argon present, an important clue about the temperature of the solar
system at the time the comet's nucleus originally formed more than 4.6
billion years ago.

The Microwave Instrument for Rosetta Orbiter will identify chemicals on or
near the comet's surface and measure the temperature of the chemicals and the
dust and ice jetting out from the comet. The instrument also will see the
gaseous activity in the tail through coma.

The Ion and Electron Sensor is part of a suite of five instruments to analyze
the plasma environment of the comet, particularly the coma. The instrument
will measure the charged particles in the sun's outer atmosphere, or solar
wind, as they interact with the gas flowing out from the comet while Rosetta
is drawing nearer to the comet's nucleus.

NASA also provided part of the electronics package the Double Focusing Mass
Spectrometer, which is part of the Swiss-built Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer
for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) instrument. ROSINA will be the first
instrument with sufficient resolution to separate two molecules with
approximately the same mass: molecular nitrogen and carbon monoxide. Clear
identification of nitrogen will help scientists understand conditions at the
time the solar system was born.

U.S. science investigators are partnering on several non-U.S. instruments and
are involved in seven of the mission's 21 instrument collaborations. NASA has
an American interdisciplinary scientist involved in the research. NASA's Deep
Space Network (DSN) is supporting the European Space Agency's (ESA's) Ground
Station Network for spacecraft tracking and navigation.

Rosetta, composed of an orbiter and lander, is flying beyond the main
asteroid belt. Its lander will obtain the first images taken from the surface
of a comet, and it will provide the first analysis of a comet's composition
by drilling into the surface. Rosetta also will be the first spacecraft to
witness, at close proximity, how a comet changes as it is subjected to the
increasing intensity of the sun's radiation.

The potential research and data from the Rosetta mission could help inform
NASA's asteroid initiative -- a mission to identify, capture and relocate an
asteroid for astronauts to explore. The initiative represents an
unprecedented technological feat that will lead to new scientific discoveries
and technological capabilities that will help protect our home planet and
achieve the goal of sending humans to an asteroid by 2025.

"Future robotic and human exploration missions to Mars, an asteroid and
beyond will be accomplished via international partnerships combining
worldwide scientific and engineering expertise," said Jim Green, director of
NASA's Planetary Science Division in Washington. "Rosetta will provide an
opportunity to study a small new world that could inform us on the best ways
to approach, orbit, and capture our target asteroid for a future human
mission."

The solar-powered spacecraft was placed into a deep sleep in June 2011, to
conserve energy during the portion of its trajectory that carried it past the
orbit of Jupiter. During Rosetta's hibernation, all instruments and
subsystems were shut off, except for the main computer including a spacecraft
clock and a few heaters. ESA mission managers are beginning to commission the
spacecraft and its instruments.

"The successful wake-up of Rosetta from its long, lonely slumber is a
testament to the teams that built and operate the spacecraft, and the
international cooperation between ESA and NASA ensured that we had some of
the world's largest deep space dishes available to relay the first signal
back to Earth," said Mark McCaughrean, senior scientific advisor in ESA's
Directorate of Science and Robotic Exploration. "There is still a lot of work
ahead of us before the exciting comet rendezvous, escort, and landing phase,
but it's great to be back online."

ESA member states and NASA contributed to the Rosetta mission. Airbus Defense
and Space built the Rosetta spacecraft. JPL manages the US contribution of
the Rosetta mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL
also built the Microwave Instrument for the Rosetta Orbiter and hosts its
principal investigator, Samuel Gulkis. The Southwest Research Institute in
San Antonio developed the Rosetta orbiter's Ion and Electron Sensor (IES) and
hosts its principal investigator, James Burch. The Southwest Research
Institute in Boulder, Colo., developed the Alice instrument and hosts its
principal investigator, Alan Stern.

An audio replay of a media teleconference held Friday with NASA and ESA
officials discussing the mission is available until Jan. 31. The call in
number is 800-839-2235.

For information on the U.S. instruments, visit:

http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov

More information about Rosetta is available online at:

http://www.esa.int/rosetta

For more information on the DSN, visit:

http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn

For more information on NASA's asteroid initiative, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/asteroidinitiative

-end-
Received on Fri 24 Jan 2014 03:40:32 PM PST