Barbecue, World Cup and an Asteroid
from Gerhard Holtkamp, 11. July 2010, 01:03
How do asteroids smell? From now on I will always associate asteroids with the smell of a barbecue...
It has been a great evening for European space science. Just a few hours ago at 15:44 UTC, 10-JUL-2010 the European Rosetta spacecraft passed asteroid Lutetia at a distance of 3162 km. But Rosetta is so far away from Earth that radio waves take over 25 minutes to reach us so at the European Space Operations Control Centre ESOC the event occurred at 16:10 UTC.
At that moment however there was no radio contact which was lost as planned five minutes earlier due to the need to rotate Rosetta quickly for the close encounter. We had to wait until 16:40 UTC to get the confirmation that radio contact had been re-established and everything had gone as planned.
Although the first pictures of Lutetia were to be shown at 21:00 UTC later in the evening we already were treated with a first glimpse of what it looks like when at 16:00 UTC Principal Inverstigator of the OSIRIS camera Holger Sierks (leftmost in the photo) presented a few pictures which were taken during the approach.
Even these first not yet fully processed pictures already showed that Lutetia is a highly interesting object which will keep scientists busy for some time. But to get more detailed close-up pictures we had to wait a few hours. In fact to get the overall data set which has been recorded will take a lot longer because Rosetta operates at a downlink rate of no more than 64 kbit/s due to its large distance and limited power.
To bridge the gap for visitors at ESOC a barbecue had been prepared and it was the most perfect weather for it. (I don't know how many other people present at the event will from now on associate asteroids with the smell of a barbecue!)
The next item to be taken care of was the match for third place at the Soccer World Cup. (Given the fact that no team from another galaxy had been invited calling this whole affair a WORLD cup might be a little overrated!) This event conveniently fitted between the barbecue and the 21:00 UTC showing of the close-up images. Luckily the match ended regularly and didn't have to go into overtime!
Once the close-up images were shown everyone was stunned. The detail is impressive. It should be noted that this was just a very first selection with a lot more to come over the next few weeks. But already there are happy faces everywhere.
For another week Rosetta science activites will continue with regard to Lutetia. After that Rosetta needs to be prepared for its main scientific goal: The rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Because passing Lutetia meant a little detour an orbit maneuver needs to be executed to get Rosetta onto the correct trajectory for the comet encounter.
Then comes what may be the most daring part of the whole mission. In order to catch up with the comet Rosetta has to be on an orbit which goes beyond the orbit of Jupiter. No other spacecraft has ventured so far from the Sun with solar power alone. Not even the specially designed large solar arrays will provide enough power for Rosetta to function normally.
So in a year from now Rosetta will be placed in hibernation for 2 1/2 years. All electrical systems except the radio receiver and command decoder as well as a few heatings to prevent freezing of some vital components will be turned off. No one at ESOC will look at Rosetta for that time. Only after Rosetta is closing in on the Sun again in early 2014 will it be re-awakened.
You might think that this hibernation period would be excellent for the Rosetta team to go on an extended holiday. But in fact it will be a very busy time as a lot of procedures and planning for the actual comet rendezvous still need to be worked out and have to be rehearsed.
To stay up-to-date with the exciting science coming from the Rosetta-Lutetia flyby check with the excellent Rosetta blog. There you will find not just more pictures but also information about all the other science activity surrounding this mission. In the second half of September first comprehensive results of the Lutetia flyby will be presented at a planetary conference in Italy.
How would asteroids really smell? My guess is that astronauts landing on an asteroid might experience something similar to what the Apollo astronauts found on the Moon. When they returned to their Lunar Module after a Moon walk with plenty of dust sticking to their spacesuit they felt a smell of gun powder...
It has been a great evening for European space science. Just a few hours ago at 15:44 UTC, 10-JUL-2010 the European Rosetta spacecraft passed asteroid Lutetia at a distance of 3162 km. But Rosetta is so far away from Earth that radio waves take over 25 minutes to reach us so at the European Space Operations Control Centre ESOC the event occurred at 16:10 UTC.
At that moment however there was no radio contact which was lost as planned five minutes earlier due to the need to rotate Rosetta quickly for the close encounter. We had to wait until 16:40 UTC to get the confirmation that radio contact had been re-established and everything had gone as planned.
Although the first pictures of Lutetia were to be shown at 21:00 UTC later in the evening we already were treated with a first glimpse of what it looks like when at 16:00 UTC Principal Inverstigator of the OSIRIS camera Holger Sierks (leftmost in the photo) presented a few pictures which were taken during the approach. Even these first not yet fully processed pictures already showed that Lutetia is a highly interesting object which will keep scientists busy for some time. But to get more detailed close-up pictures we had to wait a few hours. In fact to get the overall data set which has been recorded will take a lot longer because Rosetta operates at a downlink rate of no more than 64 kbit/s due to its large distance and limited power.
To bridge the gap for visitors at ESOC a barbecue had been prepared and it was the most perfect weather for it. (I don't know how many other people present at the event will from now on associate asteroids with the smell of a barbecue!)
The next item to be taken care of was the match for third place at the Soccer World Cup. (Given the fact that no team from another galaxy had been invited calling this whole affair a WORLD cup might be a little overrated!) This event conveniently fitted between the barbecue and the 21:00 UTC showing of the close-up images. Luckily the match ended regularly and didn't have to go into overtime!
Once the close-up images were shown everyone was stunned. The detail is impressive. It should be noted that this was just a very first selection with a lot more to come over the next few weeks. But already there are happy faces everywhere.
For another week Rosetta science activites will continue with regard to Lutetia. After that Rosetta needs to be prepared for its main scientific goal: The rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Because passing Lutetia meant a little detour an orbit maneuver needs to be executed to get Rosetta onto the correct trajectory for the comet encounter.
Then comes what may be the most daring part of the whole mission. In order to catch up with the comet Rosetta has to be on an orbit which goes beyond the orbit of Jupiter. No other spacecraft has ventured so far from the Sun with solar power alone. Not even the specially designed large solar arrays will provide enough power for Rosetta to function normally.
So in a year from now Rosetta will be placed in hibernation for 2 1/2 years. All electrical systems except the radio receiver and command decoder as well as a few heatings to prevent freezing of some vital components will be turned off. No one at ESOC will look at Rosetta for that time. Only after Rosetta is closing in on the Sun again in early 2014 will it be re-awakened.
You might think that this hibernation period would be excellent for the Rosetta team to go on an extended holiday. But in fact it will be a very busy time as a lot of procedures and planning for the actual comet rendezvous still need to be worked out and have to be rehearsed.
To stay up-to-date with the exciting science coming from the Rosetta-Lutetia flyby check with the excellent Rosetta blog. There you will find not just more pictures but also information about all the other science activity surrounding this mission. In the second half of September first comprehensive results of the Lutetia flyby will be presented at a planetary conference in Italy.
How would asteroids really smell? My guess is that astronauts landing on an asteroid might experience something similar to what the Apollo astronauts found on the Moon. When they returned to their Lunar Module after a Moon walk with plenty of dust sticking to their spacesuit they felt a smell of gun powder...
