Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Centre is leading development of an instrument to make close-up measurements of a comet, the company reported yesterday.
Called Rosina, the unit will be flying among a suite of instruments on the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft which will be launched in January 2003.
The Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis instrument will analyse the particles in the comet Wirtanen with the highest resolution, performing carbon dating on the comet's nucleus, to indicate its age.
Gravity-assist
Rosetta will fly a complicated path to Wirtanen, not arriving until 2011. After being despatched by an Ariane 5 booster, the craft will fly out to Mars and back to Earth, picking up speed by gravity-assist.
It will be aimed for the asteroid Otawara in 2006-2007 for a double gravity-assist and then to another asteroid, Siwa in 2008, finally arriving at Wirtanen in 2011 for a two-year mission, during which an attempt will be made to land a craft on the nucleus of a comet.
Source: Flight Daily News
