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	This artist's impression shows the Rosetta Orbiter in the foreground and the Lander in the background.

The International Rosetta Mission was approved in November 1993 by ESA's Science Programme Committee as the Planetary Cornerstone Mission in ESA's long-term space science programme. The mission goal was originally set for a rendezvous with comet 46 P/Wirtanen. After postponement of the initial launch a new target was set: Comet 67 P/Churyumov- Gerasimenko. On its 10 year journey to the comet, the spacecraft has passed by two asteroids: 2867 Steins (in 2008) and 21 Lutetia (in 2010).

Mission Objectives

Rosetta's main objective is to rendezvous with, and enter orbit around, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and to perform observations of the comet's nucleus and coma. During the period that Rosetta orbits the comet, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko will reach the closest point to the Sun in its orbit, allowing for the consequent increase in activity to be measured. A lander, named Philae, will be deployed and it will attempt to make the first ever controlled landing on a comet.

Mission Name

Rosetta takes its name from the Rosetta Stone, an incomplete stela of black basalt incised with the same priestly decree in three scripts concerning Ptolemy V. Although three scripts are shown (Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Egyptian Demotic and Greek) just two languages are represented. The great significance of the Stone is that it provided the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Spacecraft

The Rosetta design is based on a box-type central structure, 2.8 m x 2.1 m x 2.0 m, on which all subsystems and payload equipment are mounted. Two solar panels, with a combined area of 64 m², stretch out to 14 m in length. The total span from tip to tip is 32 m. The Philae lander is attached to the spacecraft side opposite to the side that carries the 2.2m diameter steerable high-gain antenna.

Instruments

The Rosetta Orbiter:

Remote sensing	OSIRIS, ALICE, VIRTIS, MIRO
Composition analysis	ROSINA, COSIMA, MIDAS
Nucleus large-scale structure	CONSERT
Dust flux and mass distribution	GIADA
Comet plasma environment and solar wind interaction	RPC
Radio science	RSI

The Rosetta Lander:

APXS, COSAC, MODULUS (Ptolemy), SD2, CIVA, ROLIS, SESAME, MUPUS, ROMAP, CONSERT.

Orbit

Event	Nominal date
Launch	March 2004
First Earth gravity assist	March 2005
Mars gravity assist	February 2007
Second Earth gravity assist	November 2007
Asteroid Steins flyby	5 September 2008
Third Earth gravity assist	November 2009
Asteroid Lutetia flyby	10 July 2010
Enter deep space hibernation	July 2011
Exit deep space hibernation	January 2014
Comet rendezvous manoeuvre	May 2014
Global mapping of comet	August 2014
Lander delivery	November 2014
Perihelion passage	August 2015
Mission End	December 2015

Operations Centre

The European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt provides the Operations Control Centre (OCC) for Rosetta. It controls the spacecraft via ESA's 35 m ground station at New Norcia, near Perth, Australia, with additional support during the spacecraft activation, early commissioning and near-Earth phases provided by the ESA 15 m ground station in Kourou.

The Lander Control Centre is located at DLR in Cologne, Germany and the Lander Science Centre is situated at CNES in Toulouse, France.

Last Update: 27 Oct 2011

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