P41C-3907:
Rosetta Mission Status Update
Thursday, 18 December 2014
Matthew G Taylor1, Nicolas Altobelli2, Claudia J Alexander3, Gerhard H Schwehm4, Fred Jansen2,4, Michael Küppers5, Laurence O'Rourke2, Maud Barthelemy2, Bernhard Geiger2, Bjorn Grieger2, Richard Moissl2 and Claire Vallat6, (1)ESTEC, Noordwijk, 2201, Netherlands, (2)European Space Agency, Villanueva de la Canada, Spain, (3)Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (4)ESTEC, Noordwijk, Netherlands, (5)European Space Agency, Villanueva De La Can, Spain, (6)ESAC, Villanueva, Spain
Abstract:
The Rosetta Mission is the third cornerstone mission the ESA programme Horizon 2000. The aim of the mission is to map the comet 67-P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by remote sensing, to examine its environment insitu and its evolution in the inner solar system. The lander Philae will be the first device to land on a comet and perform in-situ science on the surface. Nearly 10 years after launch in 2004, on 20th January 2014 at 10:00 UTC the spacecraft woke up from hibernation. Following successful instrument commissioning, at the time of writing the spacecraft is about to rendez-vous with the comet. The rest of 2014 will involve careful mapping and characterisation of the nucleus and its environs, for science and to identify a landing site for the lander Philae in November. This presentation will provide a brief overview of the mission up to date and where we stand in early part of the escort phase of the mission which runs until end of 2015.
