Rosetta mission design

The prime objective of the ROSETTA Comet Rendezvous Mission is in situ analysis of cometary matter. Launched by ARIANE 5 in July 2003, the ROSETTA spacecraft will reach comet Wirtanen in 2011 utilising one gravity assists at Mars and two gravity assists at Earth and also performing fast flybys at the asteroids Shipka and Mimistrobell. It will enter into orbits around the comet and observe the nucleus and its environment from the distance of a few tens of km through perihelion passage in 2013. During its stay with the comet two scientific packages will be released by the spacecraft and will impact on the cometary surface at selected landing sites to augment the remote observations of the nucleus by in situ surface measurements. Near the comet, images of landmarks on the surface of the nucleus will be processed on the ground to derive spacecraft position and comet rotational state knowledge. Based on this knowledge safe orbit and surface package delivery strategies will be implemented. This paper gives a summary of the ROSETTA mission design as reflected in the Science Team Report /1/ with some extensions on recent developments, mainly in the area of mission analysis. (C) 1997 COSPAR.