The U.S. Rosetta project: NASA´s contribution to the International Rosetta Mission

Author

Alexander, C. ; Gulkis, S. ; Frerking, M. ; Janssen, M. ; Holmes, D. ; Burch, J. ; Stern, A. ; Gibson, W. ; Goldstein, R. ; Parker, J. ; Scherrer, J. ; Slater, D. ; Fuselier, S. ; Gombosi, T.

Author_Institution

Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Technol., USA

fYear

2005

fDate

5-12 March 2005

Firstpage

407

Lastpage

421

Abstract

The International Rosetta Mission was successfully launched on March 2, 2004. NASA´s contribution to this mission consists of the following three hardware experiments: Alice (an ultraviolet spectrometer), the ion and electron sensor (IES - a plasma instrument), and the microwave instrument for the Rosetta orbiter (MIRO), as well as other components. Collectively these elements are known as the U.S. Rosetta project. In this paper, we present an overview of the U.S. Rosetta project. We present and summarize the successful launch and early operations phases of the U.S. Rosetta project. Finally, an unplanned science target appeared in the form of Comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR). Comet Linear was successfully observed by the U.S. Rosetta project on two occasions, April 30 and May 17, 2004, by both Alice and MIRO.

Keywords

aerospace instrumentation; comets; microwave measurement; plasma devices; sensors; space vehicles; ultraviolet spectrometers; Comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR); Comet Linear; IES; International Rosetta Mission; MIRO; NASA; Rosetta orbiter; US Rosetta project; comet C-2002 T7; electron sensors; ion sensors; microwave instrument; plasma instrument; ultraviolet spectrometer; Electrons; Hardware; Instruments; Mass spectroscopy; Microwave sensors; NASA; Plasma applications; Space missions; Space technology; Surface morphology;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Aerospace Conference, 2005 IEEE

Conference_Location

Big Sky, MT

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8870-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/AERO.2005.1559333

Filename

1559333