The Philae lander mission and science overview

Boehnhardt, H.; Bibring, Jean‐Pierre; Apáthy, I.; Auster, H. U.; Finzi, A. Ercoli; Goesmann, Fred; Klingelhöfer, G.; Knapmeyer, Martin; Kofman, W.; Krüger, Harald; Mottola, S.; Schmidt, W.; Seidensticker, K. J.; Spohn, Tilman; Wright, I. P.

doi:10.1098/rsta.2016.0248

Cited by 67 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 49 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The unclear environmental circumstances of Philae during its short observation campaign question the reliability of the measurements (Böhnhardt et al 2017). The few high resolution images Schröder et al 2017), the SESAME experiment and the MUPUS penetrator provided limited information on the mechanical properties of the surface.…”

Section: Determination Of the Nucleus Physical Properties And Mineralogymentioning

confidence: 99%

Cometary Nuclei—From Giotto to Rosetta

Keller

Kührt

2020

Space Sci Rev

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We will briefly recapitulate the beginning of modern cometary physic. Then we will assess the results of the cometary flyby missions previous to ESA's Rosetta rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Emphasis is given to the physical properties of cometary nuclei. We will relate the results of the Rosetta mission to those of the flybys. A major conclusion is that the visited cometary nuclei seem to be alike but represent different stages of evolution. Coma composition and appearance are not only controlled by the composition of the nucleus but also strongly influenced by the shape and rotation axis orientation of the nucleus and resulting seasons that generate varying surface coverage by back fall material. Rosetta showed that the coma composition is not only varying spatially but also strongly with time during the perihelion passage. Hence past interpretations of cometary coma observations have to be reconsidered. Finally, we will try to assess the impact of the cornerstone mission leading to a critical evaluation of the mission results. Lessons learned from Rosetta are discussed; major progress and open points in cometary research are reviewed. Keywords Comets • 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko • Cometary nuclei • Rosetta mission 1 History of Cometary Physics Comets display a unique spectacle on the night sky. Usually they appear like a faint star during their discovery and later move fast across the night sky becoming brighter when

show abstract

Section: Determination Of the Nucleus Physical Properties And Mineralogymentioning

confidence: 99%

Cometary Nuclei—From Giotto to Rosetta

Keller

Kührt

2020

Space Sci Rev

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…3c) contained two redundant release mechanisms: a belt-driven spindle drive and a spring eject system. The former could be preset to safe ejection velocities between 10 and 50 cm/s [accuracy of 1.3% and 0.3 • (1 )] , while the latter provided a fixed release velocity of 18.74 cm/s, [8]. The total MSS mass was 7.39 kg [9].…”

Section: Customized Solutionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The MASCOT separation mechanism

Grimm

Lange

et al. 2020

CEAS Space J

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT), an Asteroid Lander carried by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft, successfully landed on the Near-Earth Asteroid (162173) Ryugu on October 03, 2018. Thereby accomplishing the first-ever landing of a European spacecraft on the surface of this type of celestial body. MASCOT was a prototype design of a new class of nano-size surface science packages for the exploration of small solar system bodies. The very low gravity (thus, very low escape velocity) of the target body required the design of a miniaturized deployment mechanism with a relatively small, well-reproducible separation velocity. In addition, the mechanism also had to safely restrain the lander to the mother spacecraft during the launch and its 3.5-year cruise phase. In this paper, we describe in detail the design, numerical analysis and test of this newly developed separation mechanism. Furthermore, we compare the mechanism to other existing deployment systems and verify its performance with two independent analysis methods using actual flight data taken during the ultimate flight activation event, which initiated the successful delivery and surface operation of the MASCOT asteroid lander.

show abstract

“…The Rosetta orbiter monitored the comet activity, measured the composition of its environment and characterized the nucleus surface structure and composition. The Rosetta lander, Philae, landed on the nucleus on the 12 th of November 2014, acquired images and obtained information on the composition and the physical properties of the surface material at the landing site location 1,2 . These close observations of this primitive building block of the Solar System help to understand its formation and evolution.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%