Rosetta Mission Status Update

Matthew G Taylor1, Nicolas Altobelli2, Claudia J Alexander3, Gerhard H Schwehm1, Fred Jansen1,4, Michael Küppers2, Laurence O'Rourke4, Maud Barthelemy4, Bernhard Geiger4, Bjorn Grieger2, Richard Moissl4, Claire Vallat2 and Rosetta Instrument Science and Operations teams, (1)ESTEC, Noordwijk, Netherlands, (2)European Space Agency, Villanueva De La Can, Spain, (3)Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (4)European Space Agency, Villanueva de la Canada, Spain
Abstract:
The Rosetta Mission is the third cornerstone mission the ESA programme Horizon 2000. The aim of the mission is to map the comet 67-P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by remote sensing, to examine its environment insitu and its evolution in the inner solar system. The lander Philae will be the first device to land on a comet and perform in-situ science on the surface. Nearly 10 years after launch in 2004, on 20th January 2014 at 10:00 UTC the spacecraft woke up from hibernation. Following successful instrument commissioning, at the time of writing the spacecraft is about to rendez-vous with the comet. The rest of 2014 will involve careful mapping and characterisation of the nucleus and its environs, for science and to identify a landing site for the lander Philae in November. This presentation will provide a brief overview of the mission up to date and where we stand in early part of the escort phase of the mission which runs until end of 2015.
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