Solutions

Mission

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 originally set for a rendez-vous with comet 46 P/Wirtanen. After postponement of the original launch a new target was set: comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (short 67P/C-G).

In order to investigate the comet nucleus and the gas and dust ejected from the nucleus as the comet approaches the Sun, Rosetta carries a suite of 12 instruments on the comet orbiter and Philae, a lander equipped with a further ten instruments which perform surface measurements. The orbiter instruments combine remote sensing techniques, such as cameras and radio science measurements, with direct sensing systems such as dust and particle analysers.

Rosetta was launched on 2 March 2004. Along with Philae, its lander module, Rosetta performed a detailed study of comet 67P/C-G. During its journey to the comet, the spacecraft performed flybys of Earth, Mars, and the asteroids 21 Lutetia and 2867 Šteins. It was launched as the third cornerstone mission of the ESA’s Horizon’s 2000  program, after SOHO/Cluster and XMM-Newton.

On 6 August 2014, the spacecraft reached the comet and performed a series of maneuvers to eventually orbit the comet at distances of 30 to 10 kilometers. On 12 November, its lander module Philae performed the first successful landing on a comet, though its battery power ran out two days later. Communications with Philae were briefly restored in June and July 2015, but due to diminishing solar power, Rosetta‘s communications module with the lander was turned off on 27 July 2016. On 30 September 2016, the Rosetta spacecraft ended its mission by hard-landing on the comet in its Ma’at region.

OIP’s Participation

BIRA-IASB was responsible for the construction of the detection system and its corresponding electronics for the DFMS spectrometer.
OIP, as a subcontractor to BIRA-IASB [B], participated in the Phase C/D and was responsible for manufacturing, assembly and testing (electrical and environmental) of space qualified electronics for Remote Detector Package (RDP) and the Floating Detector Package (FDP), both part of the DFMS subsystem of the instrument of Rosina.

Status

The DFMS electronics were delivered in time to BIRA-IASB and later on integrated in the DFMS in Switzerland.

Rosetta was launched on March 2nd, 2004 and started a long journey in pursuit of comet 67P/C-G. During its 10 year journey towards the comet, the spacecraft has passed by two asteroids: 2867 Steins (in 2008) and 21 Lutetia (in 2010). The spacecraft entered deep-space hibernation mode in June 2011.
On 20 January 2014 at 18:18 UTC, a signal was received by NASA’s Goldstone and Canberra ground stations indicating that the hibernation exit sequence had been completed. The spacecraft arrived at the comet on 6 August 2014. Between August and November, the spacecraft orbited the comet and gathered data to characterize the environment and the comet nucleus.

On 12 November 2014, Rosetta’s lander Philae was deployed to the surface, the first time in history that such an extraordinary feat has been achieved (with exception of Bruce Willis in the motion picture Armageddon). Since then, the spacecraft has been orbiting the comet. It accompanied the comet on its journey around the Sun. The orbiter followed thus its loyal travel companion Philae and performed interesting science!

Partners

ROSINA was provided by collaborative efforts between scientific institutes in ESA member states and the USA.

BIRA-IASB (Uccle, Belgium) was responsible for the construction of the detection system and its corresponding electronics for the DFMS spectrometer together with IMEC (Leuven, Belgium) and OIP.