Rosetta Blog

5 September 2008 at 07:38|General|no comments

Hey! Where's the new Rosetta Blog?

Actually, it's here: http://webservices.esa.int/blog/blog/5

We've switched to a new blog system and we will not be updating this old one any longer. To follow Rosetta's Steins fly-by, surf over to the new URL above.

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Fly-Past - a poem

19 November 2007 at 10:22|General|no comments

A quick follow-up from last week!

This poem was sent in this morning by Stuart Atkinson, a strong supporter of Rosetta and space in general. Thanks, Stuart!

Two worlds of eye-widening wonder
my cameras have now seen. One green
and blue, poles newly dusted fresh cream white,
the other a rusted, dusty place, its ancient
Time-worn weary face pitted with craters,
one for every star that shines in its frigid, rose-tinged sky.

Barsoom loomed before me first;
its ochre-coated globe rolling
past in sullen silence as I flashed by,
spying on its rock-strewn plains
of gold and yawning canyons grand.
Mars’ shifting cinnamon sands shone
lantern-bright in the endless empty night
that has become my life
and through my outstretched solar wings
I caught a fleeting glimpse of proud Olympus,
a cloudy scarf of cirrus wrapped around its lofty peak.

Months of dreamless sleep then.
Mars a delicious, distant memory,
leaving me to search the sea of dark
for a single sapphire spark lost in Sol’s
fierce glare. Then there she was –
a sickle blade of blue, a wicked scythe
of living light so bright against the black;
no turning back now, Earth’s crescent
suddenly huge before me with the lights
of her sleeping towns and cities glittering
on her lovely face, sequins glinting
on an ebony cloak as I raced past,
faster than the meteors that dashed
themselves against her warming atmosphere
as I speared on my way, saying goodbye
to the blue skies of Earth and, closing my tired eyes,
fell into that deep sleep again…

Access original posting on Stuart's site, here: http://journals.aol.com/stuartatk/TheVerse/entries/2007/11/18/fly-past/810

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Rosetta Blog: It's a wrap!

15 November 2007 at 15:10|General|2 comments

By tomorrow at 13:00 CET (12:00 UTC), the Flight Dynamics experts here at ESOC estimate that Rosetta will be speeding away from Earth at 9.389 km/second (33 800 km/hr!); that's 35.438 km/second - or a whopping 127 579 km/hr relative to the Sun! Time to finish up our blog postings and get back to work on the regular ESA Web sites - before everyone at the office finds out how much fun this has been... :-)

From this point on, we'll publish news plus science results that we receive from any of the Rosetta instrument teams/principal investigators on the main ESA Portal, in the Rosetta section: http://www.esa.int/rosetta

The spacecraft's next way-points in the solar system will be:

5 Sep 2008 - Fly-by Asteroid Steins
13 Nov 2009 - 3rd (and final) Earth swing-by
10 Jul 2010 - Fly-by Asteroid Lutetia

... followed by 'The Big Sleep' - formally, deep-space hibernation - from May 2011 until January 2014, a span of some 32 months.

We are looking forward to blogging future ESA events, including the upcoming Columbus lab delivery to the ISS (scheduled for 6 December) and we are also looking forward to receiving your future comments and queries via our blog. I hope that this site can grow into a very dynamic and interactive feedback channel that helps us get news, facts and cool results out to the Web in a fast, informal and readable way.

BTW: if you haven't seen our (relatively) new 'ESApod' channel on YouTube yet, point your browser to: http://www.youtube.com/esapod. Our channel editor at ESA/ESRIN, Francesca, has selected and uploaded a super line-up of videos and animations covering ESA missions and programmes, and we're getting a growing level of traffic. She's recently posted:

We've had a great time covering this swing-by with you, and all of us here on the ESA Web portal team appreciate your comments, queries and feedback. Since 8 November, our Rosetta blog (in both English and German) has generated over 16 000 page views and and was visited by almost 5000 unique visitors; I guess this traffic will continue to grow over the next few days. Thanks for your support! -- Daniel

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Another fantastic OSIRIS image - Earth by Night (composite)

15 November 2007 at 11:14|Rosetta science|no comments

Yesterday evening, the OSIRIS science team led by Dr Horst Uwe Keller at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research sent in a fantastic composite image received from OSIRIS. Click on 'full story' for link to full-size image.

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Today: Expecting additional science results

15 November 2007 at 10:16|Rosetta science|no comments

As soon as we seen anything/receive anything from the science teams, we'll post some news.

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OSIRIS images - first downloads

14 November 2007 at 16:13|Rosetta science|16 comments

The first two images received from OSIRIS - Rosetta's Optical Spectroscopic and Infrared Remote Imaging System.

Links to full-size images are in the full post.

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Rosetta operations update 15:11 CET (14:11 UTC)

14 November 2007 at 15:25|Rosetta spacecraft|no comments

Rosetta SOM Andrea Accomazzo in the Dedicated Control Room has just passed along the following update:

Rosetta downloaded science data during the night, which ended at 08:00 CET
The spacecraft is operating nominally
Shortly after closest approach, one of the Star Trackers experienced a minor problem; it has been fully recovered
Rosetta is now downloading additional science data; the current pass began at 15:05 CET (14:05 UTC) via NASA's DSN station at Goldstone, California, and will continue until 19:00 CET (18:00 UTC)
Next pass begins at 23:30 CET, via ESA's deep-space station at New Norcia, the ESTRACK station usually dedicated to Rosetta
Slews will continue at various times until 08:00 CET, 16 November; the next slew (change in orientation of the spacecraft) is due tonight at 22:30 CET (21:30 UTC), when Rosetta will point back again at the Earth-Moon system for additional imaging

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Images of Earth and Moon captured by Rosetta

14 November 2007 at 09:58|Rosetta science|7 comments

Very cool! Rosetta's Nav Cam (navigation camera) captured some excellent black & white images last night of the Earth and the Moon!

Go direct to our mini gallery here - Now with all images!.

The images were received on Earth early in the morning of 14 November, and were processed by the Flight Dynamics section at ESOC; Ulrich Herfort sent the final images to us just a few minutes ago.

A full article with expanded captions and more information will be posted on the ESA Web portal shortly. -- Daniel

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Excellent animation of 13 November swing-by

14 November 2007 at 08:50|Trajectory|no comments

There's an excellent animation of the 13 November swing-by, showing first the orbital trajectory of Rosetta with respect to the sola system and then a **very cool** swing-by sequence as seen from Rosetta.

This animated sequence, generated using the NASA Solar System simulator, shows Rosetta's orbit (green) from 1 July 2007 through 31 March 2008, in a top view of the inner Solar System. The second Earth swing-by on 13 November is shown from Rosetta's perspective in the middle of the sequence, for a period of 10 hours around closest approach, which was 21:57 CET 13 November.

This animation shows clearly why the illumination conditions on approach were poor, in contrast to the situation on departure - when the Earth was fully illuminated by the Sun.

The version below is posted via YouTube; you can download full-resolution versions via the ESA RSSD portal.

PS: Access the full ESA channel on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/esapod