| 01.03.2005 | Control
centers are preparing for the Earth swingby on March 4, 2005.
The Lander has already been switched on by MTL (The Orbiter's Master timeline) since midnight, and first telemetry (Housekeeping data) received looks fine. During the Earth swingby two experiments on Philae will run: ROMAP-MAG will measure the (known) near-Earth magnetic field incl. inward and outward bow shock crossings (useful for calibration) and the CIVA-P cameras will take 5 sets of images during closest approach. These will be the only Earth images by Rosetta during the present swingby. |
| 15.11.2004 |
Commissioning
is completed! * Commissioning Block 4 ( 05. – 09.10.2004) has been finished successfully. It was mainly devoted to combined operations between SD2 (drill), CIVA-M (microscopes), COSAC and PTOLEMY (mass spectrometers). * Philae participated in addition in the pointing campaign on 01.10.2004 and combined RPC/ROMAP measurements on 08./10.09.2004 during Draconide encounter. Commissioning: Main results and conclusions * Commissioning was performed smoothly throughout all blocks. The cooperation between ESA’s ROSETTA Ground Segment and the Lander Ground Segment was excellent. * All functions vital for cruise and potential science operations during cruise have been verified. * Most of the functions essential for landing and on–comet science operations have been successfully tested to the envisaged level, but further tests on ground and with the Flight Model as well as S/W improvements are required. * The penning sensor, part of the ROMAP instrument, failed during block 4 of commissioning. The other ROMAP sensors are not affected, i.e. the magnetic field and plasma measurements can be performed without degradation. A permanent loss of the penning sensor, if confirmed, would be unpleasant but not constitute a substantial degradation of the Lander’s scientific objectives. * Commissioning has demonstrated the global good health of the Lander (systems and instruments). The level of performances achieved gives confidence that Philae will contribute at full scale to the overall ROSETTA mission success. |
| Cologne, 11.4.2004 | Lander commissioning block 2 is under way (since 9.4. until 15.4.). All experiments are checked out and the checkout of subsystems continues. As of today, everything is running smoothly and no major problems have been encountered. |
| Cologne, 17.3.2004 |
This
morning we concluded the first block of the PHILAE commissioning.
Here's a brief overview on the status The Non-Explosive-Actuators (NEAs) which attached the Lander firmly to the orbiter during launch have been released already 9 hours after launch. This activity was nominally scheduled for Block#1 of commissioning but had to be executed earlier to keep thermo-elastic deformations within the allowed limits. The release was smooth and successful. The first block of PHILAE commissioning started Friday evening and was concluded this morning around 8:15 local time. It was very successful as we did not only achieve the goals of block#1, but were able to advance some of the activities which were planned for block#2 and block#3. The greatest news first: The Thermal Control System Main (TCU1), which failed at the first switch-on after storage at the beginning of the new launch campaign, came back to life!!! We hardly could believe that it really worked when we performed a check during pass 1. Since then we operated TCU1 frequently and it's still working nominally. However, we will carefully analyse the situation before drawing conclusions with regard to future operations. The following activities have been completed successfully: CDMS commissioning, , Cruise AFT, ESS/TxRx check-out, Primary Battery check-out, Secondary Battery check-out (has still full capacity, meaning that the suspicious string survived the launch!), discharge of Secondary Battery to 55%, Flywheel commissioning, Landing Gear commissioning including release of the Central Launch Lock, ADS commissioning, MUPUS S/W upload, part of COSAC commissioning. MSS commissioning could not be concluded due to an error in the procedure. This will be done in block 2 of commissioning. We also observed a DPU anomaly similar to the well known switch-over behaviour. Has to be investigated further. The Lander is now in hibernation mode and waiting for the next commissioning slot. In summary we can be more than satisfied with the performance of PHILAE. |
| Kourou, 3.3.2004 |
After
two previous launch attempts had been postponed, Rosetta finally set off on its long journey to comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko at 0717 UT 2 March 2004. Arianespace Flight 158, with its Ariane 5 rocket and modified upper stage, successfully placed Rosetta (and Philae) onto an escape trajectory and out into the solar system. The Lander was already contacted today to release the NEAs, the bolts that connect it securely with the Orbiter during launch - everything was nominal. The Lander NEAs were then successfully released by the Mission Control Team at ESOC. In the course of this procedure the ESS/Lander was switched ON successfully two times, via ESS main and ESS redundant:
Phile is now in condition for the commissioning phase, which will start on Friday, March 12th, UTC 23:30. |
| Cologne,
04.02.2004 |
-
The launch campaign is running smoothly in Kourou, the Lander has been
tested a last time before launch; everything was found fine
- Launch is expected 26 Feb. 2004, 07:17 UTC (1st attempt) resp. 07:37 UTC (2nd attempt). - As the result of an international competition, the Lander has been given a proper name: It is PHILAE, after the island in Egypt where an obelisk was found that confirmed Champollion's deciphering of the ancient hieroglyphs.  [PHILAE]Here is the text of a press release concerning the new name of the Lander: Unlocking the Secrets of the Universe Rosetta's lander named Philae With just 21 days until the launch of the European Space Agency's ESA Rosetta comet mission, the spacecraft's lander has been named "Philae" by a 15 year-old Italian girl. Rosetta will embark on a 10 year journey to Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko from Kourou, French Guiana on 26th February 2004. Philae is the island in the river Nile on which an obelisk was found that had a bilingual inscription including the names of Cleopatra and Ptolemy in Egyptian hieroglyphs. This provided the French historian Jean-Francois Champollion with the final clues that allowed him to translate the hieroglyphs of the Rosetta Stone and unlock the secrets of the civilisation of ancient Egypt. Just as the Philae Obelisk and the Rosetta Stone provided the keys to an ancient civilization, the Philae Lander and the Rosetta Orbiter will unlock the mysteries of the oldest building blocks of our Solar System - the comets. Germany, France, Italy and Hungary are the main contributors to the Lander working together with Austria, Finland, Ireland and the UK. The main contributors held national competitions to select the most appropriate name. Philae was proposed by 15-year-old Serena Olga Vismara from Arluno near Milan, Italy. Her hobbies are reading and surfing the Internet - and this is where she got the idea of naming the lander Philae. Her prize will be a visit to Kourou in French Guiana to attend the launch of the Rosetta mission on February 26th. On learning of her success Serena said, "I love astronomy and visit every day Italian Space Agency's web pages. When I saw the contest regarding the Rosetta lander's name I looked for information on Rosetta Stone on the Internet and I found the idea of naming the lander Philae. I am very happy that my proposal has been chosen because my dream is to be an astronaut and this could be the first step!" Study of Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko will allow scientists to look back 4600 million years to an epoch when no planets existed and only a vast swarm of asteroids and comets surrounded the Sun. On arrival at the comet in 2014, Philae will be commanded to self-eject from the Orbiter and unfold its three legs, ready for a gentle touchdown. Immediately after touchdown, a harpoon is fired to anchor the Philae to the ground and prevent it escaping from the comet's extremely weak gravity. The legs can rotate, lift or tilt to return Philae to an upright position. Philae will determine the physical properties of the comet surface and sub-surface and their chemical, mineralogical and isotopic compositions. This will complement the Orbiter studies of the global characterisation of the comet's dynamic properties and surface morphology. |
| Cologne,
12.11.2003 |
The mission to 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko is confirmed. The
landing gear (LG) has been modified in Kourou to increase its
performance on the much heavier nucleus. The launch campaign has been
started already; the launch window opens Feb 26, 2004
|
| Cologne,
22.04.2003 |
The new mission target is most likely comet 67/P
Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
 It is pronounced like this: (sound-file) and the orbital elements of this comet can be found here. Launch would be end of February 2004 (with an Ariane 5 G+) and rendezvous with the comet in 2014. Churyumov-Gerasimenko seems to be bigger than Wirtanen: the nucluear effective radius has been measured as r = 1.98 +/- 0.02 km (albedo assumed to be 0.04) , making landing more challenging. Investigations are presently being performed to characterise the performance limits of the landing system and to identify options for improvement. The decision on the new mission is exspected for mid May. |
| Cologne, 15.1.2003 |
Here is an summary of the situation for the Lander:
1.) There's no launch opportunity in the next five months, giving time for carefully considering alternative scenarios. All mission opportunities will be investigated which are based on a launch within the next 2,5 years, i.e. up to summer 2005. 2.) The new mission will be selected based on the following criteria: - Scientific return - Technical risk - Financial resource 3.) The situation will be brought to the Science Programme Committee (SPC) in February and again in May. At the latter meeting a new mission profile shall be proposed and decided. 4.) Near term activities: The S/C will be passivated (taking off the harpoons, partly de-fuelling and decontaminating the S/C etc.) and kept in Kourou at least for the near future. Of course all of us are disappointed. However, the situation is not that bad, we did not loose a mission : we still have a fully functional S/C for which a mission opportunity will certainly be found. The next months will be devoted to bringing the S/C in a configuration suitable for storage and to establish a new mission profile. From the Lander side we now have to investigate carefully the implications of a having the S/C on ground, of a different orbit and possibly a new target. See also ESA's press release of 21 Jan 2003 |
| Paris, 15.1.2003 |
Today it was officially announced by ESA that the Rosetta
launch, foreseen for January 2003, has been postponed. This means the
launch window 12-31 Jan 2003 will be missed, and the mission must be
redesigned; various options including other comets than Wirtanen are
now analysed, with a new launch date no later than mid-2005.
The reason for not launching now was that, given the short time after the Ariane5 failure in December 2002, it could not completely excluded that there is a significant risk for the Rosetta mission when launching now. The new launch must fulfill three hard criteria: 1. The scientific return must be as high as possible 2. The technical risk must be as low as possible 3. Financial constraints must be met. Yet ESA and the Lander consortium remain determined to fly! |
|
17.12.2002 |
The Rosetta spacecraft with the Lander mounted has
successfully undergone last tests and checks - it is ready to launch.
The spacecraft is waiting (in its "baby sitting") in Kourou, fuelled
and ready to start combined operations with the launch vehicle on
January 3rd.The ground segment went through its "launch freeze" on
Monday 16 December and simulations will continue twice a week.
After the recent failure of the Ariane 5 ("10-ton") rocket, the objective is still to launch Rosetta in January; the 12th/13th January is still the baseline launch date. Note that Rosetta will be launched with the traditional, well-tested baseline first stage (with a Vulcain-1 engine), while the failure has occured on an upgraded first stage with a Vulcain-2 engine.The independent investigation panel looking into the failure will deliver its final report on Jan. 6. Details about a German "Rosetta night" TV event can be found here |
| 23.09.2002 |
The Lander, attached to the Orbiter, has been shipped to
Kourou (CSG - Centre Spatiale de Guyane) Sept.12, by plane. During the
coming days, short functional tests (AFT) to check the integrity of the
Lander after the shipping and software uploads are scheduled. There,
the launch preparation phase will continue until Jan. 13, the nominal
launch date.
|
| 27.08.2002 |
The Lander now has been finally mounted to the Orbiter. An
integrated system test (IST) has been performed successfully and the
whole spacecraft is now getting ready to be shipped to Kourou by Sept.
12. There, the launch preparation phase will continue until Jan. 13,
the nominal launch date.
|