ESA Science & Technology - Improving Rosetta's Return-Link Margins

Publication date: 02 July 1998

Authors: Calzolari, G.P., et al.

Journal: ESA Bulletin
Volume: 95
Year: 1998

Copyright: ESA

The Rosetta mission is designed to study in-situ a cometary nucleus' environment and its evolution in the inner Solar System. To be launched in January 2003 by an Ariane-5, Rosetta will rendezvous with Comet P/Wirtanen in 2011, after one Mars- and two Earth-gravity assists, and two asteroid fly-bys. The near-comet operations, which are scheduled to last about 1.5 years, will require a minimum return-link telemetry data rate of 5 kbit/s to meet the scientific goals, with about 14 hours of daily coverage.