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Questions tagged [rosetta]

Rosetta is a European Space Agency (ESA) built and launched, semi-autonomous robotic spacecraft on its mission to study the environment, physical properties and dynamics of the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko as it passes close to the Sun and forms its coma and tails. It is a large orbiter with 12 onboard instruments, and a robotic lander Philae designed to touch down and grip to the comet's surface to study its nucleus. See also the [philae] tag.

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How did ESA blast an atomic force microscope off the Earth, deploy it in deep space, capture tiny particles from a comet and position them 'under' it?

Answers to Is there, or has there ever been anything remotely like an electron microscope in space? show that there has indeed been one (as do answer(s) to Microscopes in space?), but mostly electron ...
uhoh's user avatar
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Evidence of Water D/H Ratios of Kuiper Belt Comets

I was wondering, are the comets 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and 103P/Hartley 2 the only Kuiper Belt comets to date that have their water D/H (deuterium-to-hydrogen) ratio measured?
Bell's user avatar
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Puzzler; "who" are the members of this family of comet-visiting spacecraft?

In the video Once upon a time... Rosetta's grand finale (also in ESA Space Videos) mentioned in this answer there is a "family portrait" showing Rosetta along with previous comet-visiting spacecraft. ...
uhoh's user avatar
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Have deep-space spacecraft always used some form of spread-spectrum for data downlink?

tl;dr: Question: Have deep-space spacecraft always use some form of spread-spectrum for data downlink? note: I'm looking for some insight into why, and any possible exceptions, not just a "yes" or "...
uhoh's user avatar
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How long could a satellite orbit a comet without any control?

As a follow up of the comments here: Why was the Rosetta probe programmed to "auto shutoff" at the moment of hitting the surface? I'm fairly convince that a satellite cannot maintain an ...
Antzi's user avatar
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Why was the Rosetta probe programmed to "auto shutoff" at the moment of hitting the surface?

It is written here that before the final descent Rosetta was programmed for "auto shutoff" after reaching the surface of the comet, to prevent the possibility of the further communications in the case ...
Nightrider's user avatar
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Did Rosetta improve on models of non-gravitational effects on comet 67P's orbit?

Question: Since the presence of the Rosetta spacecraft near comet 67P allowed for a detailed mass measurement, extremely precise position and velocity determinations, and physcal measurement and ...
uhoh's user avatar
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Any relationship between Rosetta's OSIRIS camera, OSIRIS-REx, OSIRIS-3U, OSIRIS optical comms, OSIRIS spectrograph, & OSIRIS game?

I just noticed when reading about comet 67P that there were OSIRIS images taken by the OSIRIS camera on the Rosetta spacecraft. Since those six letters also dominate the name of the spacecraft OSIRIS-...
uhoh's user avatar
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Could Rosetta find its way back to Earth?

Obviously, it's now an essentially inert artifact not going anywhere under its own thrust. The perihelion of 67P is about 20% larger than Earth's aphelion. Assuming its orbit is stable, neither the ...
Anthony X's user avatar
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How firmly does Rosetta rest on 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko?

Now, since Rosetta touched down on "Tschurri", as the comet is called in the german speaking world, I am asking myself how firmly does Rosetta sit on its comet? Since on the comet very little gravity ...
Dohn Joe's user avatar
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Why is Rosetta not going to hover or descend multiple times before crashing into 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko?

Currently Rosetta is on a free fall collision course with 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. If I understand correctly the probe will send back data and pictures during the descent, and once it has crashed ...
user2705196's user avatar
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WHY did Rosetta have to go into hibernation for 2.5 years?

It seems the Rosetta spacecraft was put (put itself) into hibernation 08-June-2011. It spun itself up to stabilize its attitude, then shut down navigation, attitude control, communication systems as ...
uhoh's user avatar
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How will Philae's power failure affect Rosetta's mission?

With Philae dead on the comet, how will Rosetta's mission change? Obviously there isn't anything more that the lander can do, so Rosetta doesn't have to use its time and resources trying to wake it up....
duzzy's user avatar
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Why is Dawn in a much higher observation orbit than Rosetta?

Dawn orbits Ceres at thousands of kilometers periapsis altitude, and doesn't seem to plan to go lower than 375 km. In contrast, Rosetta has been down to about 30 km altitude, and will finally even try ...
LocalFluff's user avatar
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Does Philae's waking enable scientists to determine its location?

Now that Philae has woken, is more known about its exact location? In other words: does Philae know where Philae is? Navigation on Churi sounds challenging.
gerrit's user avatar
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How close can Rosetta come to the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet?

ESA publishes quite a few images from the 67P comet, sent by Rosetta, from various distances away to collect as much as possible and as varied as possible. As I write, Rosetta is 6 Km away from the ...
Eric Platon's user avatar
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Why did Philae the comet lander bounce?

After Rosetta released the lander, it bounced several times upon hitting the comet's surface and its two harpoons did not deploy. Why did the Philae's grabbing mechanism fail?
Brian Leeming's user avatar
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Philae - organic molecules?

Soon after the Philae landing on the comet Churyumov - Gerasimenko, there were news that it detected organic molecules on the surface. Does anybody know which ones? Were they the basic ones, like CO, ...
L.R.'s user avatar
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How to use "HORIZONS" tool by NASA to get orientation of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko axis?

I found this powerful online tool from NASA: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi#top It allows getting orbital data for the comet, but what I actually need is the orientation of the axis of the ...
jumpjack's user avatar
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Why does it take so long to find Philae's exact location?

We all have seen the photos indicating the exact planned landing site, and the (much bigger) candidate area where Philae might have finally touched down, also the pictures that show Philae "in-jump" ...
TheBlastOne's user avatar
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Since Philae lost power, what would be the approximate time to recharge it

Recently read that power was lost in the Philae probe. Did the team under estimate how the probe would recharge or is it in a spot where it doesn't get enough sun. And since this was supposed to ...
Vnge's user avatar
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Philae Lander - Were drilling samples collected and analysed?

Were drilling samples taken by SD2 and analysed by Ptolemy, COSAC, and ÇIVA?
G Walker's user avatar
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Would a POV camera on Philae lander be possible if the mission was launched today?

I saw the question "Why is there no POV video of the Philae lander landing?", which lead me to this question: The data transfer rate of Rosetta is only 28kb/s, which is not strange because it is very,...
joppiesaus's user avatar
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Could underestimation of 67P's mass have helped Philae?

It appears that we underestimated comet 67P's mass significantly (see What was known about 67P/C-G's mass before the arrival of Rosetta?) during the initial planning. I wonder if this ...
pat_nafs's user avatar
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What data did Philae collect? [closed]

What did Philae find? I'm not asking for yet another summary of on-board instruments and a list which were activated. I'm asking for the actual results - either semi-raw data dumps with results of ...
SF.'s user avatar
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Could an upcoming comet lander be designed to cope with a greater variety of terrain types, compared to Philae?

All I could think about while looking at the designs for Philae (besides how courageous and ambitious the mission was) was that Philae itself looks like it was designed for landing on a known surface. ...
Mohammad's user avatar
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Is it feasible for a future Rosetta type mission to use wireless transfer of power to Philae?

While listening to the latest updates it seems like there is a limited 60 hour battery capacity left for Philae. There seems to be some information on the web on wireless power transfer using lasers. ...
Mohammad's user avatar
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Why did Rosetta travel 6.5 billion km to reach a comet that was only 510 million km from Earth?

I am reading this news article about the Rosetta mission. In one paragraph it says: Philae's data collection from a comet travelling at 18 kilometres (11 miles) per second, currently at a distance ...
SpringLearner's user avatar
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What was known about 67P/C-G's mass before the arrival of Rosetta?

The determination of the mass of a celestial object is usually between hard and impossible unless one can observe something that orbits it. In the case of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, one of ...
E.P.'s user avatar
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5 votes
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Was the gravitational pull at Philae's landing site known prior to landing?

How well was the gravitational field of Philae's landing spot known before the landing? I am referring to the absolute value of the pull, the direction of pull, and the tidal forces.
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18 votes
4 answers
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How long can Philae stay "alive"?

I noticed that 67P completes an orbit in 6.4 years. Assuming everything goes to plan, how long can Philae stay operational and keep sending data throughout the comet's orbit?
System Down's user avatar
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Did we expect Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko to be dusty?

I just saw the pictures from Philae I was very surprised to see that the surface looks like it is covered in dust, not that much different than our moon. I personally was expecting it to be big ...
James Jenkins's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
308 views

If Philae lander had bounced off the comet and become uncontrollable, could we still have seen some of the descent photos?

In other words, are the photos transferred "live" to Rosetta or did they plan to transfer them after landing? (and would they have been lost had the landing failed) (yes, I am aware that "nice photos"...
szulat's user avatar
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Could the Philae comet lander "hop"?

"Lander" is maybe not a good job description for the Rosetta sub probe Philae. I understand that there is no practically useful gravity there. Philae will try to hook itself onto the comet surface in ...
LocalFluff's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
347 views

Will kicked-up "dust" be a problem for Rosetta and lander Philae?

I see that escape velocity on 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko is 0.64 m/s. (Contrast Earth's 11,186 m/s.) With such light gravity I imagine any material kicked up would take hours to land, or orbit ...
Bob Stein's user avatar
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Rosetta's lander, Philae will "anchor" itself on Comet 67P. What level of control can we have over this?

Rosetta's lander, Philae is scheduled to land on Comet 67P in November 2014. This will involve use of "harpoon" to anchor itself to make sure Philae remains attached to the surface despite weak ...
pat_nafs's user avatar
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How accurately do they know where Rosetta is, and how do they know?

Title says it all really: how accurately do they know where the Rosetta space vehicle is at any given time, and how do they know that?
GreenAsJade's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
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Is Rosetta really "in orbit around" 67P, or just conveniently co-located?

The pictures of Rosettas orbit show it doing some straight legs past 67P for the next while.- Does this mean that at the current distance, the force of 67P's gravity is not really significant, and ...
GreenAsJade's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
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Why doesn't 67P get a name?

Now that it is a really special comet, and every one is talking about it, why doesn't it get a name, instead of just a number?
GreenAsJade's user avatar
34 votes
4 answers
4k views

Is this really Rosetta's orbit around 67P?

From this link I fount the following representation of Rosetta's orbit relative to 67P: A video from ESA depicts a similar orbit. My questions are: is that really the relative orbit? If yes: why ...
Federico's user avatar
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Could Rosetta have lassoed Chury to hitch a ride instead of chasing after it for 10 years?

The Rosetta probe had to fly-by several bodies to acquire the necessary velocity to match 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (Chury). Towards this end it was launched almost a decade in advance. Philae will ...
Everyone's user avatar
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9 votes
5 answers
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What is the smallest body that has sufficient gravity for another body to orbit it?

In the question Will Rosetta have to adjust its orbit around Chury due to the comet's coma and tails? and related answers it is implied that the Rosetta spacecraft will actually orbit 67P/...
James Jenkins's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
611 views

How do space-bound heaters work?

A brief follow-up to Could Rosetta have been awakened from Earth if necessary? The Rosetta FAQ writes to say Q. Was Rosetta completely shut down? Almost. Only the computer and several heaters ...
Everyone's user avatar
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Could Rosetta have been awakened from Earth if necessary?

Today, January 20th 2014 AD of the Gregorian Calendar, is the wake-up day of Rosetta. Expected AOS window commenced at 1830 UTC before which Rosetta was expected to wake-up, and perform basic house-...
Everyone's user avatar
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21 votes
2 answers
848 views

How does Rosetta "wake-up?"

Rosetta has been in hibernation mode for most of the last three years. As far as I am aware, "sleep" means using minimum resources since there is nothing for the probe to do during its long transfer ...
Stu's user avatar
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10 votes
1 answer
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Are any precautions in place to prevent loss of the Rosetta Lander the way Hayabusa's MINERVA was?

Back in 2005, Hayabusa carried a mini-rover 'MINERVA'. MINERVA was a Solar Powered entity designed to hop around on Itokawa, and capture images. Unfortunately (perhaps due to the time-lag) MINERVA was ...
Everyone's user avatar
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17 votes
4 answers
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Why is Philae not provided with a propulsion system?

Rosetta is en route to rendezvous with Chury. Briefly, the mission comprises an orbiter, and a lander. The latter named Philae. Wikipedia writes to say ... The lander is designed to touch down ...
Everyone's user avatar
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15 votes
2 answers
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Will Rosetta have to adjust its orbit around Chury due to the comet's coma and tails?

ESA's Rosetta spacecraft is scheduled to orbit 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko after it reaches the comet by mid-2014: Rosetta's main objective is to rendezvous with, and enter orbit around, comet 67P/...
TildalWave's user avatar
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22 votes
1 answer
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On-board computer / data handling system of Rosetta - details?

I seek detailed information on the computer and/or data handling system of Rosetta. Who manufactured it? What type(s) of CPU is used? What kind of architecture does it belong to and at what ...
s-m-e's user avatar
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