The Rosetta Mission: Comet and Asteroid Exploration

In March 2004 the European Space Agency launched its Planetary Cornerstone Mission Rosetta to rendezvous with Jupiter-family comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The Rosetta mission represents the next step into the improvement of our understanding of comet nuclei naturally following the four successful comet nucleus fly-by missions carried out in the past. It will however not perform a simple fly-by at its target comet, but combines an Orbiter and a Lander Mission. The Rosetta spacecraft will go in orbit around the comet nucleus when it is still far away from the Sun, and escort the comet for more than a year along its pre- and post-perihelion orbit while monitoring the evolution of the nucleus and the coma as a function of increasing and decreasing solar flux input. Different instrumentations will be used in parallel, from multi-wavelength spectrometry to in-situ measurements of coma and nucleus composition and physical properties. In addition the Rosetta Lander Philae will land on the nucleus surface, before the comet is too active to permit such a landing (i.e. at around r = 3 AU) and examine the surface and subsurface composition as well as its physical properties. Two fly-bys at main belt asteroids have been scheduled for the Rosetta spacecraft during its journey to the comet. The first fly-by at E-type asteroid (2867) Steins was already successfully executed in September 2008. The second and main fly-by at asteroid (21) Lutetia is scheduled for July 2010.