Rosetta / Rosina

Rosetta was a cornerstone mission of the European Space Agency to follow, go into orbit around, and land on a comet. It studied the Jupiter-family comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko with a combination of remote sensing and in situ measurements. Following a 10-year journey through the Solar System, the spacecraft studied the comet from August 2014 to September 2016. On 12 November 2014, Rosetta’s lander Philae was deployed to the surface. Rosetta and Philae gathered data to characterize the environment and the comet nucleus as they change through its closest passage to the Sun (its perihelion in August 2015).

L’instrument ROSINA (Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis) est constitué de 2 spectromètres de masse aux caractéristiques différentes (RTOF – Reflectron Time-of-Flight mass spectrometer, et DFMS – Double Focusing Mass Spectrometer) et d’une sonde de pression (COPS – Comet Pressure Sensor). Les spectromètres de masse ont étudié la partie gazeuse de la comète. La sonde de pression a donné des informations sur l’environnement de l’orbiteur Rosetta.

Objectifs

La mission Rosetta visait à comprendre les processus, à l’origine du Système Solaire, de la formation de la Terre, de l’origine de l’eau terrestre, de l’apparition de la vie, et à étudier les relations entre la matière cométaire et la matière interplanétaire.

The measurements made at 67P gave us insights into its volatiles and solid fraction composition, the structure of its interior and the properties of its activity, thus, reshaping our understanding of comets and of the origin of the Solar System.

Implication de l’IRAP

IRAP contributed to the instruments ROSINA, CONSERT, APXS, Osiris, RPC, and the international comet observation campaign.

Partenaires

Université de Berne, Suisse ; BIRA, Belgique ; LATMOS, France ; SwRI, USA ; MPS, Allemagne ; TUB, Allemagne ; Université du Michigan, USA