General
15 June, 2011 09:55
REPLAY Webcast: 25 years of comet science from ESA/ESOC 15 June 16:30-17:30 CEST
A retrospective of ESA's historic Giotto mission with highlights of past comet science and featuring Rosetta and its ambitious goal to land on a comet in 2014.
Presenters include the ESA Director of Science and Robotic Exploration, Alvaro Gimenez, the ESA Director of Human Spaceflight and Operations, Thomas Reiter, former ESA Director of Science and Robotic Exploration, David Southwood, as well as leading Solar System and planetary scientists, including Roger Bonnet, Executive Director of the International Space Science Institute, Uwe Keller, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Gerhard Schwehm, ESA's Rosetta Mission Manager, Rita Schulz, ESA's Rosetta Project Scientist, and Anny-Chantal Levasseur-Regourd, Giotto OPE Principal Investigator from UPMC/CNRS, Paris.
General , Fun stuff , coolcomet
14 June, 2011 15:29
Cool Comet campaign: Top 5 and grand winner
The listing of our Top Five entries in the Cool Comet campaign!
Image credit: @Axpere via Twitpic - click for full size
Our sincere thanks to all who took part. Judging was very difficult! The complete listing of submisisons is available via TwapperKeeper or here in the blog.
And the Top Five are...
GRAND PRIZE WINNER!
@lilla71
Il simbolo di una bellezza tanto stupefacente quanto fugace che vorresti imprigionare nello spazio e nel tempo
Symbols of a beauty as amazing as fleeting, that you would like to capture in space and time
Top Places - 2nd thru 5th
@JPMajor
Why are comets cool? They're cold as ice, dirty as heck and still think tails are fashionable.
@alessandrocumbo
Rosetta dimostra che le distanze risiedono solo nelle menti ottuse degli uomini, il viaggio è cambiare angolo visivo.
Rosetta shows that distances are only limited by the human mind. Journey enables changing your view angle.
@Axpere
Rare Opportunity (to) See Extraterrestrial (&) Truly Tremendous Article. Entrance to dreamworld is #coolcomet http://twitpic.com/55xh4q
@CometsAhoy
Wondrous marvels, lovely sights / Glowing softly in the night / Bearing ancient molecules / Comets really are so cool / #coolcomet
Cool comet submissions: Honourable mentions & Made Us Chuckle
This view of Comet Halley's nucleus was obtained by the Halley Multicolour Camera (HMC) on board the Giotto spacecraft, as it passed within 600 km of the comet nucleus on 13 March 1986. Credit: ESA/MPI
{{Final winners and Top 5 to be posted shortly}}
A listing of all #coolcomet Twitter campaign entries ranked by the judges in the 'Honourable mention' and 'Made us chuckle' categories (note 'very rough' EN translation for any entries not in English).
Access details on the campaign via: Take Part in ESA's Cool Comet Campaign
Bravo and well done to all those listed below!!!
- @kristin_365
- @Jrmluque
- @M__Lopez
- @BuddyWolly
- @magisstra
- @Johnny_Proxy
- @ELDNAstronomy
- @AngusMcLulz
- @diolor
- @EPenguin
- @cifvts
- @LiiveToWiin
Click on Full story to read Tweets...
Full story »
General
08 June, 2011 16:54
Rosetta asleep until 2014
Rosetta entered hibernation at 16:13 CEST today, the moment that ESA & NASA ground stations in Australia lost the probe's radio signal, as planned. Full article in the main ESA website here: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Operations/SEM38RJ4LOG_0.html
Happiness after final command sent!
In the image below, Rosetta Operations Manager Andrea Accomazzo gestures happily in the Rosetta control room at ESOC today, just moments after the final command was sent to Rosetta to trigger a 31-month hibernation until January 2014.
Command to be sent shortly
The Rosetta flight control team here at ESOC now plan to issue the hibernation command at 14:47 CEST; confirmation of successful entry would then come approximately 75 minutes later.
Follow @esaoperations on Twitter for all updates.
Confirmed: Rosetta now slowly spinning
The automated start of Rosetta's spin-up manoeuvre took place as scheduled this morning at 10:00 CEST. In this image, ESA's Paolo Ferri and Gerhard Schwehm stand at right while Roberto Porta and Sylvain Lodiot watch the plot coming in from NASA's DSN station at Canberra, Australia. Team are all rather pleased with progress so far! -- Daniel
Rosetta's lullaby song heard on Earth
A nice little update this morning! Our friend and past ESA blog contributor Bertrand Pinel, from France, sent in this screenshot showing the track of the Rosetta radio signal carrier shortly after the GO/NO-GO decision last night and start of the spacecraft's automated hibernation entry sequence (23:47CEST). Bertrand points out that the start of Rosetta's spin up and the switch off today won't be 'visible' to hsi radio equipment because the probe won't be over Europe when it happens (starting in about 30 minutes).
Bertrand is a keen amateur radio astronomer and always amazes us with what he can achieve with home-made equipment! He's contributed to the Mars Express blog in the past (see pictures of Bertrand and some of his equipment here). Merci, Bertrand...and thanks to ESA's Thomas Ormston on the Mars Express team for passing on the details. -- Daniel
Monitoring progress: Rosetta team in control room
Quick update from the Rosetta dedicated Control Room this AM: Contact via NASA's 70m deep space station at Canberra has been established - you can see signals arriving from Rosetta on screen in the third photo below. Later today, NASA Goldstone and ESA New Norcia will also come on line, so there is plenty of back up available.
Spacecraft Operations Manager Andrea Accomazzo says that the execution of the on-board sequence to prepare the craft for hibernation is on track! Next big milestone comes just after 10:00 CEST today - start of the spin-up manoeuvre. -- Daniel
Spacecraft Operations Manager Andrea Accomazzo (standing) with Rosetta engineers Roberto Porta (L) and Sylvain Lodiot (at console) at ESOC, Darmstadt, monitor signals from Rosetta via NASA's Canberra deep space station.
Clock counts down time to next major on-board event: start of spin-up manoeuvre, due at about 10:00 CEST.
Watching signals from Rosetta as the spacecraft conducts an automated switch-over into final pre-hibernation mode.
Rosetta is GO for hibernation entry
An update just in tonight from Spacecraft Operations Manager Andrea Accomazzo in the Rosetta Dedicated Control Room at ESOC.
The 'GO' telecommand, which starts the ball rolling on board Rosetta for final automated sequence for hibernation entry, was sent yesterday evening at 21:47 UTC (23:47 CEST). The team at ESOC saw it execute on board the spacecraft about one hour later, at 00:47 CEST, which confirms satellite is on track for hibernation later today.
Basically, the entire sequence to command entering into hibernation is loaded on board and will start automatically, stopping only to wait for the final (manual) command to complete shut-down, due after 13:00 CEST.
Next big event? The spin up manoeuvre at 10:00 CEST today. -- Daniel
DSS 43 - Canberra: Signalling Rosetta
View of Canberra 70m (230 ft.) antenna with flags from the three Deep Space Network sites. The Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, located outside Canberra, Australia, is one of the three complexes which comprise NASA's Deep Space Network. The other complexes are located in Goldstone, California, and Madrid, Spain. Credit: NASA
DSS 43 is scheduled to contact Rosetta starting at 07:20 CEST on Wednesday, 8 June.
Rosetta hibernation timeline
One-way signal time is now 1824 seconds. All times subject to change. Mission operations managed from ESA/ESOC, Darmstadt. Most crucial events highlighted in blue. -- Daniel
Notes:
- AoS - Acquisition of signal
- NNO - New Norcia - ESA/ESTRACK 35m deep space station (DSA 1) Australia
- LoS - Loss of signal
- GDS - Goldstone - NASA/DSN 70m deep space station (DSS 14) California
- CAN - Canberra - NASA/DSN 70m deep space station (DSS 43) Australia
- CEB - Cebreros - ESA/ESTRACK 35m deep space station (DSA 2) Spain
- TTC - Telemetry & Telecommands
- FDIR - Failure Detection Isolation and Recovery
- TM - Telemetry
- HGA - High gain antenna
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