ESA Rosetta, news, updates and discussion Options

[ngunn]

I've been thinking about this issue in relation to possible future outer solar system missions, possibly with major inter-agency collaborations. One possibility would be to launch component modules separately and assemble them in Earth orbit. You could have a single interplanetary propulsion unit plus entirely independent modules for (for example) planet orbiter, moon orbiter, balloon probes module, lander - the failure of any one of which would not jeopardise the entire mission. Of course it would be desirable to have a back-up interplanetary propulsion unit on the ground that the other bits could just wait in orbit for if necessary.

[centsworth_II]

There are benefits to spreading things out a little.

Also, multiple missions can be sent to multiple targets.

[Guest_Analyst_*]

All this considered, I stand by my opinion. Maybe the risks are higher (all eggs in one basket), but the benefits are higher too. For me, subjective, the benefits of flagship missions outweight the risks of loosing one.

Analyst

[tedstryk]

All this considered, I stand by my opinion. Maybe the risks are higher (all eggs in one basket), but the benefits are higher too. For me, subjective, the benefits of flagship missions outweight the risks of loosing one.

Analyst

To me, it depends. If funding levels are too low, and thus flagships get to rare and then one fails, the powers that be might get too used to not having planetary missions. Also, smaller missions are often needed to pathfind, in some cases to prove technology, and in others to do some basic reconnaissance to select instruments for a flagship.

In addition, it depends on the target. For the moon, or even Mars, a series of little missions works OK, at least for orbiters. But when it comes to the outer solar system, the cost of getting there makes small missions harder to justify, post Pioneer.

[elakdawalla]

I just thought I'd point out something I mentioned in the blog yesterday: The Society is sending your very own Doug Ellison to Darmstadt, Germany to cover the Mars flyby for the blog, since I can't travel for business right now. Be nice and give him some (virtual) company as he stares blearily at his laptop screen beginning around 2 am CET on Sunday...

--Emily

[ngunn]

I noticed that in your blog and was duly delighted. He will have plenty of company!

[SFJCody]

Is a long extended mission a possibility for Rosetta?

http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db_shm?sst...p;search=Search

seems to indicate that the target comet will make a distant Jupiter pass around 2017/2018

[ustrax]

OSIRIS update.

[Stu]

Thanks ustrax... look at the last paragraph... "No timetable for publication" of the acquired data.

... sigh ...

[tedstryk]

Did he say anything about the trajectory for the upcoming earth flyby (or does anybody know?) I have long wished another spacecraft would make a Galileo-like flyby with its cameras on.

[ugordan]

Emily has some new info in her blog installment:

Speaking of high-phase observations, I have found out that Rosetta succeeded in acquiring high-phase (that is to say, crescent-phase) views of Mars as it exited the Mars system during its flyby. However, there was a wrinkle that I wasn't aware of: the head scientist on the camera instrument, Horst Uwe Keller, told me that most of the observations during that period were designed to see detail on the nightside atmosphere of Mars, meaning that any part of Mars that was daylit will be quite overexposed. So the pictures may not be as beautiful as I had hoped. Still, they would be unusual, so I do hope to see some released someday.

I suggested a while earlier that maybe the crescent images weren't spectacular for them to merit public release. Seems this might be the case after all.

[djellison]

MOST.

Not all.

Doug

[Stu]

weren't spectacular for them to merit public release

You see, I don't get that at all... what, we're only allowed to see "spectacular" images now? I've sat through three mouse-clicking, RSI-inducing years of countless (clink) black and white pictures of MER sundials for pity's sake, so I don't care if they're "spectacular" or not, I'm ***interested***!! I want to see them, and share them with all the people I give my talks to, not just because, in a very small way, we all helped pay for them, but because it's what's supposed to happen. Isn't it? They design, build and launch the probes, they take pictures and measurements, send the data back, and we are told what they learned - or did I miss something? Did I miss a Part B of the Plan that states that the only people allowed to see the results are the people in the offices and labs, because the "Little People" couldn't possibly understand what the missions learned..?

Sorry, but I feel quite strongly about this. I'm busting my guts Out There giving talks at every opportunity, being an advocate for the world's space programs, trying to convince people that the money spent on space probes is well spent and wouldn't be better spent on other things, and when I come up against something like this it just makes my job so much harder.

[tedstryk]

I received word that VEx will be having, as mentioned before, a major release within a month, and that further releases should be monthly. I look forward to this, but I'll believe it when I see it.

[Rakhir]

OSIRIS camera on Rosetta obtains ‘light curve’ of asteroid Steins

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Rosetta/SEMCC2R08ZE_0.html