About the author

Michael Maibaum

Michael Maibaum studied Aerospace Engineering at RWTH Aachen. He started working at DLR in 1995 and was involved in the Rosetta mission from the design through to the construction and all operational phases of the Philae comet lander.

Now, he is a member of the operations team in the MASCOT project and is once more responsible for the thermal system in particular.

Posts from Michael Maibaum

Space | 21. September 2018

What will happen in the MASCOT control room before and during the landing?

MASCOT will begin its main and also final mission phase on 3 October 2018. Early in the morning, at 03:58:15 local time, MASCOT will separate from Hayabusa2 and land on the surface of Ryugu a few minutes later. It will already begin to conduct scientific measurements before starting its descent, and will continue doing so after landing, right up until its battery runs out. Standing on the surface, MASCOT will observe its surroundings and carry out various measuring sequences, depending on whether it is night or day at the landing site at the time. A day on Ryugu is only 7:38 hours, meaning that MASCOT will land in the early afternoon, local asteroid time. read more