Rosetta - mission to study a comet in detail

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta comet chaser is one of the most fascinating projects in space science and exploration. The mission involves flying an orbiter to the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, accompanying the comet on its orbit and learning more about it in the process. The highlight will be when the orbiter deploys the DLR lander Philae on the surface of the comet.

Philae was developed and built by an international consortium led by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The aim of this mission is to conduct a thorough investigation of the comet, which will provide insight into the origins of the Solar System.

Data

Mission

Launch date:2 March 2004, 08:17 CET
Launch site:Kourou, French Guiana
Launcher:Ariane 5 G
Mission duration: 12 years in total, until December 2015
Mission Control Centre:European Space Operations Center (ESOC), Darmstadt
Philae Lander Control Centre:DLR Microgravity User Support Center, Cologne
Ground stations: Perth, Australia and Kourou, French Guiana
Launch mass: 3000 kilograms
Fuel: 1670 kilograms
Science payload:165 kilograms

Orbiter

Orbiter dimensions:2.8 x 2.1 x 2.0 metres
Solar panel dimensions:Two panels, each 14 metres long; total surface area of 64 square metres
Power via solar panels:850 W at 3.4 AU*, 395 W at 5.25 AU*
Communications antenna:Two-axis steerable high-gain antenna, 2.2 metres in diameter

Lander

Weight:100 kilograms
Data transmission:16 kilobytes per second via the orbiter
Energy supply:Solar generator, 4 Watts, primary (for the first 60 hours after the landing on the comet) and secondary (rechargeable) batteries
* AU='Astronomical Units'

Schedule

Launch: March 2004
First Earth flyby:March 2005
Mars flyby: March 2007
Second Earth flyby:November 2007
Third Earth flyby:November 2009
Comet rendezvous:May 2014
Global mapping of the comet:August 2014
Landing on the comet:November 2014
Orbital flight:August 2015
End of mission:December 2015

Last modified: 28/06/2011 09:24:13

URL for this article

  • http://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10395/584_read-386/

Contacts

Elke Heinemann
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) - German Aerospace Center
Tel.: +49 2203 601-2867
Fax: +49 2203 601-3249

Artist's impression of Rosetta asteroid fly-by

Rosettas Vorbeiflug am Asteroiden Steins 2008

ESA's Rosetta spacecraft flew by asteroid (2867) Steins on 5 September 2008 at 20:58 CEST, ground received time (= spacecraft time CEST + 20 minutes), with a closest approach distance of 800 km. Steins is Rosetta's first nominal scientific target. The spacecraft encountered the asteroid in the course of its first incursion into the main asteroid belt located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, while on its way to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The study of asteroids is extremely important because they represent a sample of Solar System material at different stages of evolution – key to understanding the origin of our own planet and of our planetary neighbourhood.

Credit: ESA.

Links

  • DLR - Rosetta Lander Control Center
    (http://www.dlr.de/rs/forschung/musc/lcc/;internal&action=_setlanguage.action?LANGUAGE=en)
  • DLR's Rosetta Lander project homepage
    (http://www.dlr.de/rb/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-4538/7439_read-11269/)
  • ESA Rosetta Special
    (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Rosetta/index.html)