Rosetta Mission Status: Toward and From Perihelion Passage

Abstract:

Since the deployment and subsequent touchdown of its Philae Lander on the surface of comet C67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 12 November 2014, the Rosetta spacecraft has left bound orbits around the comet and passed a number of milestones contributing to further achieving the science return goals of the mission. It performed two very close flybys in February and March of this year, allowing for the collection of data and high-resolution images of the nucleus and its close environment at a time of increasing cometary activity. Such increase in activity actually led to orbiter operational issues as the star tracker navigation was seriously impacted by the presence of dust particles, and since then the spacecraft had to be moved further away from the nucleus so as to guarantee its safety. This has meant a complete redesign of the operational scheme for the mission, whose science planning implementation is now being uplinked to the spacecraft much closer to execution onboard, with the Flight Dynamics team defining trajectories as late and as close as possible to the comet. In addition to science data acquired from the northern hemisphere of the comet while it progresses toward perihelion, attempts are being made to communicate with the Lander since renewed signal with Philae was obtained in mid-June. The aim is to be able to achieve as much of the Long Term Science goals as possible during the remaining lifetime of the Lander, albeit within the orbiter safety constraints. With perihelion within reach, orbiter science of the southern hemisphere is taking on more importance, and the combination of such science with continued Lander contact attempts will mark Rosetta’s passage across the perihelion for C67P.