Updates Rosetta Mission News

[Notebook]

http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/0...ke-up-behind-the-scenes-with-the-philae-team/

Since Rosetta’s lander Philae first woke up from hibernation and called ‘home’ on 13 June, the teams at the Lander Control Center (LCC – DLR), the Science Operations and Navigation Center (SONC – CNES), the Max-Planck Institute (MPS – Göttingen) and the Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics (Wigner Research Centre for Physics – Budapest) have been working with ESA’s Rosetta Mission Operations Centre (RMOC – ESOC) and the Rosetta Science Ground Segment (RSGS – ESAC), and in close cooperation with the Philae and Rosetta scientists, to establish regular and predictable contacts with Philae, and to resume scientific measurements.

 

[Notebook]

http://sci.esa.int/rosetta/56513-rosetta-reveals-comet-s-water-ice-cycle/

23 September 2015
ESA's Rosetta spacecraft has provided evidence for a daily water-ice cycle on and near the surface of comets.

 

[Notebook]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-34379287

The rubber duck-shaped comet being followed by Europe's Rosetta probe used to be two separate objects.

Scientists say pictures of 67P show its two lobes to have "onion skin" layers that intersect in a way that can only be the result of two different bodies having collided and stuck together.

 

[Ripley]

Already a year!!

 

[Urwumpe]

Also this month is the last possibility to establish communication with Philae before the sunlight gets too dim to recharge the battery.

 

[RisingFury]

The pilot, Jebadiah Kerman, survived the landing unharmed and remains on the comet.

 

[fred18]

Already a year!!

Reconstructing Philae’s flight - YouTube

from the video seems that philae was just centimeters away from missing the stopping rock and get lost

 

[Soheil_Esy]

Philae status report: “Time is running out”

08/01/2016

Rosetta’s lander Philae has remained silent since 9 July 2015. With every passing day, Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is getting further and further away from the Sun, and as such, temperatures are falling on the comet's surface. Things are getting critical for Philae: conditions are predicted to be “lander-hostile” – too cold – by the end of January.

But the lander team are going to try another method to trigger a reponse from Philae: on 10 January they will send a command, via Rosetta, to attempt to make Philae’s momentum wheel switch on.

"Time is running out, so we want to explore all possibilities," says Stephan Ulamec, Philae lander manager at DLR.

Philae’s momentum wheel ensured that it was stable during its descent from the orbiter on 12 November, 2014.

If the command is successfully received and executed, the hope is that it might shift the lander’s position.

"At best, the spacecraft might shake dust from its solar panels and better align itself with the Sun," explains Philae technical manager Koen Geurts at DLR’s lander control centre.

But it is also possible that the lander may not be able to respond to the command. It remains unclear as to what state Philae is in since it last sent data about its health in July, but the DLR team believes that one of the lander’s two transmitters and one of the two receivers have failed. The second transmitter and receiver apparently no longer function smoothly, either.

The team continues to hope that Philae has not tilted over or become covered with too much dust. On an active comet, which is ejecting gas and dust into space, the lander is not in a particularly safe location.

"Unfortunately, Philae's silence does not bode well," says Stephan.

In the night of 21-22 December, 2015, the receiver on Rosetta was triggered, but analysis showed that this was not a transmission from the lander.

By the end of January, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko will be more than 300 million kilometres from the Sun, resulting in an operating temperature of less than -51ºC on Philae such that the lander will no longer be able to turn on.

The command to activate the spin wheel will, therefore, be one of the last attempts to obtain a response from the lander.

"There is a small chance," says Philae operations manager Cinzia Fantinati from DLR’s control team. "We want to leave no stone unturned."

The communication unit on Rosetta will still remain switched on and continue listening for Philae beyond January.

Rosetta’s mission will continue until the end of September 2016.

http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/01/08/philae-status-report-time-is-running-out/

 

[Notebook]

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Inside_Rosetta_s_comet

In a new study, published in this week’s issue of the journal Nature, a team led by Martin Pätzold, from Rheinische Institut für Umweltforschung an der Universität zu Köln, Germany, have shown that Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is also a low-density object, but they have also been able to rule out a cavernous interior.

This result is consistent with earlier results from Rosetta’s CONSERT radar experiment showing that the double-lobed comet’s ‘head’ is fairly homogenous on spatial scales of a few tens of metres.

 

[Notebook]

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Rosetta_s_lander_faces_eternal_hibernation

Looks like the end of the line for Philae.

N.

 

[fort]

https://twitter.com/ESA_Rosetta

Still listening, but I fear @Philae2014 is facing tough conditions on #67P...

 

[Notebook]

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/S...tta_finds_magnetic_field-free_bubble_at_comet

11 March 2016
ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft has revealed a surprisingly large region around its host comet devoid of any magnetic field.

When ESA’s Giotto flew past Comet Halley three decades ago, it found a vast magnetic-free region extending more than 4000 km from the nucleus. This was the first observation of something that scientists had until then only thought about but had never seen.

 

[Notebook]

BBC article

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35945644

 

[Notebook]

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/The_colour-changing_comet

April 2016
Rosetta’s comet has been seen changing colour and brightness in front of the ESA orbiter’s eyes, as the Sun’s heat strips away the older surface to reveal fresher material.

Rosetta’s Visible and InfraRed Thermal Imaging Spectrometer, VIRTIS, began to detect these changes in the sunlit parts of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko – mostly the northern hemisphere and equatorial regions – in the months immediately following the spacecraft’s arrival in August 2014.

 

[Notebook]

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/S...Rosetta_s_comet_contains_ingredients_for_life

27 May 2016
Ingredients regarded as crucial for the origin of life on Earth have been discovered at the comet that ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft has been probing for almost two years.

They include the amino acid glycine, which is commonly found in proteins, and phosphorus, a key component of DNA and cell membranes.

Scientists have long debated the important possibility that water and organic molecules were brought by asteroids and comets to the young Earth after it cooled following its formation, providing some of the key building blocks for the emergence of life.

 

[Notebook]

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Rosetta_finale_set_for_30_September

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-36607608

30 June 2016
Rosetta is set to complete its mission in a controlled descent to the surface of its comet on 30 September.

The mission is coming to an end as a result of the spacecraft’s ever-increasing distance from the Sun and Earth. It is heading out towards the orbit of Jupiter, resulting in significantly reduced solar power to operate the craft and its instruments, and a reduction in bandwidth available to downlink scientific data.

Only 3 months left! Didn't know that was the plan.

N.

 

[Notebook]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-36903465

Communications to the Philae lander, the first robot to land on a comet, are to be cut forever as the Rosetta Mission begins to wind down.


Professor Monica Grady, of the Open University, explains how the lander fell silent.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-36904368

 

[Notebook]

http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos/2016/08/Rosetta_s_journey_around_the_comet

Animation visualising Rosetta’s two-year journey around Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

The animation begins on 31 July 2014, during Rosetta’s final approach to the comet after its ten-year journey through space. The spacecraft arrived at a distance of 100 km on 6 August whereupon it gradually approached the comet and entered initial mapping orbits that were needed to select a landing site for Philae. These observations also enabled the first comet science of the mission. The manoeuvres in the lead up to, during and after Philae’s deployment on 12 November are seen, before Rosetta settled into longer-term science orbits.

 

[Notebook]

http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2016/07/Comet_on_6_August_2016_NavCam

Two incredible years have passed since ESA’s comet-chaser Rosetta arrived at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 6 August 2014.

During that time Rosetta has mapped the comet’s curious shape and given us awe-inspiring views from near and far, spotting changes in its surface features and watching as jets of gas and dust stream out in to space – sometimes unexpectedly as sudden outbursts.

 

[Notebook]

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Rosetta_captures_comet_outburst

25 August 2016
In unprecedented observations made earlier this year, Rosetta unexpectedly captured a dramatic comet outburst that may have been triggered by a landslide.
Nine of Rosetta’s instruments, including its cameras, dust collectors, and gas and plasma analysers, were monitoring the comet from about 35 km in a coordinated planned sequence when the outburst happened on 19 February.