Fact Sheet
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| | | This artist's impression shows the Rosetta Orbiter in the foreground and the Lander in the background.
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The International Rosetta Mission was approved in November 1993 by ESA's Science Programme Committee as the Planetary Cornerstone Mission in ESA's long-term space science programme. The mission goal was initially set for a rendezvous with comet 46 P/Wirtanen. After postponement of the initial launch a new target was set: Comet 67 P/Churyumov- Gerasimenko. On its 10 year journey to the comet, the spacecraft will pass by two asteroids: 2867 Steins (in 2008) and 21 Lutetia (in 2010).
Mission Objectives
Rosetta's main objective is to rendezvous with, and enter orbit around, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and to perform observations of the comet's nucleus and coma. During the period that Rosetta orbits the comet, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko will reach the closest point to the Sun in its orbit, allowing for the consequent increase in activity to be measured. A lander, named Philae, will be deployed and it will attempt to make the first ever controlled landing on a comet. Mission Name
Rosetta takes its name from the Rosetta Stone, an incomplete stela of black basalt incised with the same priestly decree in three scripts concerning Ptolemy V. Although three scripts are shown (Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Egyptian Demotic and Greek) just two languages are represented. The great significance of the Stone is that it provided the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs. SpacecraftThe Rosetta design is based on a box-type central structure, 2.8 m x 2.1 m x 2.0 m, on which all subsystems and payload equipment are mounted. Two solar panels, with a combined area of 64 m2, stretch out to 14 m in length. The total span from tip to tip is 32 m. The Philae lander is attached to the spacecraft side opposite to the side that carries the 2.2m diameter steerable high-gain antenna. InstrumentsThe Rosetta Orbiter:
| Remote sensing | OSIRIS, ALICE, VIRTIS, MIRO | | Composition analysis | ROSINA, COSIMA, MIDAS | | Nucleus large-scale structure | CONSERT | | Dust flux and mass distribution | GIADA | | Comet plasma environment and solar wind interaction | RPC | | Radio science | RSI | The Rosetta Lander: APXS, COSAC, MODULUS (Ptolemy), SD2, CIVA, ROLIS, SESAME, MUPUS, ROMAP, CONSERT. Orbit
| Event | Nominal date | | Launch | March 2004 | | First Earth gravity assist | March 2005 | | Mars gravity assist | February 2007 | | Second Earth gravity assist | November 2007 | | Asteroid Steins flyby | 5 September 2008 | | Third Earth gravity assist | November 2009 | | Asteroid Lutetia flyby | 10 July 2010 | | Enter deep space hibernation | July 2011 | | Exit deep space hibernation | January 2014 | | Comet rendezvous manoeuvre | May 2014 | | Global mapping of comet | August 2014 | | Lander delivery | November 2014 | | Perihelion passage | August 2015 | | Mission End | December 2015 |
Operations Centre
The European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt provides the Operations Control Centre (OCC) for Rosetta. It controls the spacecraft via ESA's 35 m ground station at New Norcia, near Perth, Australia, with additional support during the spacecraft activation, early commissioning and near-Earth phases provided by the ESA 15 m ground station in Kourou. The Lander Control Centre is located at DLR in Cologne, Germany and the Lander Science Centre is situated at CNES in Toulouse, France.
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Last Update: 24 Sep 2009
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