IRF and the ESA Rosetta mission
(Picture: ESA)
The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft will visit a comet
called 67P/Churyomov-Gerasimenko, catching up with the comet in its
elliptic orbit around the Sun in 2014 and following it closely for more
than a year as it approaches the Sun. IRF participates with two
instruments on board: an Ion Composition Analyser (ICA), provided by IRF in Kiruna, and a dual Langmuir probe
(LAP), provided by IRF in Uppsala. These instruments concentrate on
measuring the partly ionized gas and dust exhausted by the comet nuclei
(about 4 km across) as it is heated by the Sun. The IRF instruments
will be the first of their kind in long-time orbit around a comet.
Previous missions, such as the ESA spacecraft Giotto to comets Halley and
Grigg-Skjellerup, have only by-passed comets at great speed, while
Rosetta will move around Churyomov-Gerasimenko with a speed on the
order of a meter per minute, giving unprecedented measurement
opportunities. Rosetta was launched from Kourou in French Guiana on 2
March 2004.
| Launched: |
2 March 2004 |
| Destination: |
Comet 67P/Churyomov-Gerasimenko |
| IRF instruments: |
RPC-ICA (Rosetta Plasma Consortium - Ion Composition Analyser, PI: Rickard Lundin)
RPC-LAP (Rosetta Plasma Consortium - Langmuir probe, PI: Anders Eriksson) |
| Contact: |
Scientific information: Dr Hans Nilsson, tel. +46-980-79127, hans.nilsson*irf.se (ICA); Dr Anders Eriksson, tel. +46-18-471 5945, aie@irfu.se (LAP) |
|
Technical information (ICA): Herman Andersson, tel. +46-980-79034, herman.andersson@irf.se |
| Satellite page: |
Rosetta homepage at ESA |
Press releases:
- 2010-07-07: Asteroid undersöks på plats av svenska instrument - in Swedish
- 2009-11-10: Kometjägare passerar jorden - ombord finns svensk utrustning från IRF - in Swedish
- 2008-09-04: Swedish instruments looking for ripples when the Rosetta spacecraft meets asteroid Steins
- 2007-11-12: Kometjägare passerar jorden - in Swedish
- 2004-03-02: Svenska satellitinstrument är nu på väg till kometen 67P/Churyumov/Gerasimenko ombord på ESA:s rymdsond Rosetta - in Swedish
- 2004-2-23: IRF:s instrument ICA och LAP lyfter mot kometen 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko ombord på ESA:s ambitiösa mission Rosetta - in Swedish
- 2004-01-30: Svenska satellitinstrument snart på väg till en komet - in Swedish
Links:
[IRF home]
[SSPT home]
Updated by webmaster*irf.se, 2010-07-07
