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 The
European Comet mission «Rosetta» began with its
launch on 02. March. The comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko is to be explored using the "Philae" lander
on board the Rosetta probe. IABG prepared the ground for a successful mission in extensive tests.
The European comet probe «Rosetta» is on its way into space. Its Ariane 5 launch rocket lifted off
on Tuesday, 02. March 2004 from the Space Centre in Kourou in French Guyana and sent the probe off into space
successfully. Rosetta, with the «Philae» lander on board, is to find out about the creation of
the solar system 4.5 billion years ago, the origin of water on the Earth and perhaps also the origin of life.
If
the mission runs to plan, Rosetta will reach the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko in November 2014 after a flight
lasting 10 years and having covered five billion kilometers. The landing robot Philae will then for the first
time in space history attempt to land on a comet.
This is the to date costliest ESA research project with total cost of over one billion Euro. In advance therefore,
everything possible was done to ensure the success of the mission. The tests at IABG made an important contribution
to this. The high-tech laboratory, Philae, (previously known as Rosetta
lander) was tested thoroughly in our
Space Test Centre from Sept to Nov 2001 concerning its space viability. In this period, an international team
of specialists was active at IABG.
Philae had to go through the full programme. The vibrations occurring during the launch were simulated using
vibration tests. The extreme conditions in space make particularly high demands of the material. In a space
simulation chamber, therefore, vacuum, space cold and solar radiation were simulated. Investigations on electro-magnetic
compatibility were similarly part of the test programme as were the opening up tests of the landing legs in
a
vacuum at different temperatures. We determined the mass and centre-of-gravity and subjected the whole lander
unit finally to magnetic purity tests. For this purpose, the sole existing magnet field simulation facility
in Europe was used.
Philae completed all the tests successfully. There is nothing to prevent a rendezvous with comet in our view – we
are keeping our fingers crossed!
03/11/04
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