9 mars 2017
ROSETTA space mission, launched on March 2004, for the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P / C-G) was composed of an orbiter and Philae lander. The payload contained multiple instruments performing the teledetection and in situe measurements. The probe was accompanying the comet on its journey around the sun on the orbits close to the nucleus on the distance from tens to hundreds kilometers. The scientific objective of the mission is the study the cometary material, the surface and the internal structure of the comet and their evolution on the their journey around the sun.
The main scientific questions are:
How have formed and evolved comets? What are the physical propreties, structure of surface and interior of comets? What is the composition of the ice grains, molecules, organic? Have they played a role in the evolution of the planets?
On 12 November 2014 Philae lander, after some twists and turns, landed on the surface of the comet. This was a spectacular success and the first cometary landing in the history of the exploration of the solar system.
In our presentation we will describe the payloads of the probe and of Philae. We present and discuss some scientific results by ROSETTA and also by Philae.
We describe more specifically CONSERT bistatic radar, which the primary scientific goal was to investigate the deep interior of the nucleus of the comet. The radar had operated between the Rosetta spacecraft and Philae lander and through radio tomographic mapping between the lander and the main spacecraft, obtained important scientific results about the internal structure and composition of the comet 67/P C-G.