Rosetta is on its way!

[01101001]

Esa found a diamond in the sky !
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/index.html

ESA Rosetta Mission News: Steins: A diamond in the sky

Gerhard Schwehm, Mission Manager for Rosetta said, "It looks like a typical asteroid, but it is really fascinating how much we can learn from just the images. This is our first science highlight; we certainly have a lot of promising science ahead of us. I’m already looking forward to encountering our next diamond in the sky, the much bigger Lutetia."
[...]
The OSIRIS team expects that the images that they will retrieve from the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) will be of comparable resolution. This will add to the detailed colour information and hence to knowledge of the surface composition.
[...]
Science team members noted that the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) appears to have switched to safe mode a few minutes before closest approach, but switched back on after a few hours.

ESA Rosetta Mission
ESA Rosetta Blog

[KaiYeves]

It looks sort of like an arrowhead to me.

[01101001]

Planetary Society Weblog, 2 items:

Next Ladawalla Live Web Chat (in about 10 minutes) focuses on Steins and Rosetta. Article Ustream live web chat

More Steins images. Article

[Lord Jubjub]

Rosetta has been falling back towards the sun for awhile. It is crossing the orbit of the asteroid Lutetia, which it will encounter in the summer of 2010. It will cross Stein's orbit later this month.

[Lord Jubjub]

Rosetta will cross the orbit of Mars today. In a couple of months, it will encounter Earth and be flung toward Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

[01101001]

In a couple of months, it will encounter Earth and be flung toward Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Planetary Society Blog: Here comes Rosetta!

Heads up! ESA's Rosetta comet-chasing mission is going to buzz by Earth again in less than a month. In anticipation of that event, Daniel Scuka has fired up the Rosetta blog again [...]

Remember two years ago? Planetary Society Blog: That's no near-Earth object, it's a spaceship!

Indeed, today, the Minor Planet Center issued an Editorial Notice stating that further investigation has shown that the object briefly designated 2007 VN84 is, in fact, the Rosetta spacecraft [...]

[slang]

Planetary Society Blog: Here comes Rosetta!

We've seen Earth. Go grab a comet already!

Remember two years ago? Planetary Society Blog: That's no near-Earth object, it's a spaceship!

"Who knew, by the way, that the European Space Agency had the technology and the budget to send a spacecraft off to orbit the Moon? Who knew that the Europeans even had a space agency?

[djellison]

WHo knew that we had a space agency? Nobody. School kids surveyed the summer after Mars Express arrived, and the summer that Huygens landed were asked, here in the UK, to name any organisation involved in the exploration of space.

NASA, of course, came top. Don't know came second. Russia and ESA came third together - just one point more than 'Ares 51' and two points more than 'Men in Black'.

The kids here in the UK don't even know Rosetta exists.

[Lord Jubjub]

Nine days until Earth flyby. Here is the latest press release. For those who have been following this craft, there is really nothing new here.

[djellison]

Rosetta, in the form of OSIRIS, has one of the most stunning cameras ever sent into deep space.

When Galileo flew past the Earth, twice, they took photos and created a movie
When NEAR flew past the Earth they took photos and created a movie
When MESSENGER flew past the Earth they took photos and created a movie

I've got £5 that says ESA, Rosetta and OSIRIS miss the opportunity to make a stunning, better than Full HD movie of an Earth flyby using OSIRIS. The opportunity to remind Europe that we paid a billion euros for this spacecraft that's out there.

OSIRIS has still not delivered a single item of data to the PDS or PSA since it launched five years ago.

[ugordan]

OSIRIS has still not delivered a single item of data to the PDS or PSA since it launched five years ago.

Have no fear, they'll do that early in 2008 just as they promised.

Um, what year is this again?

[djellison]

I'm sure it'll get posted with the Smart 1 data.

[Launch window]

Nine days until Earth flyby. Here is the latest press release. For those who have been following this craft, there is really nothing new here.

check out the blog

http://webservices.esa.int/blog/blog/5/

[Lord Jubjub]

Rosetta passed over the Pacific Ocean about five hours ago. The next time it will be even close to this area, it will be in orbit around Churyumov-Gerasimenko (or on it).

[KaiYeves]

Gorgeous! I've got a new background...

[bebe7]

Incredible...saw it on BBC...Kind of like that movie.

[Lord Jubjub]

I should really check out JPL's space simulator site more frequently.

I had thought that Rosetta would pass Mars orbit this week. Turned out that it crossed Mars orbit on the third of March.

Oh well. . . on to Lutetia in July!

[slang]

The Planetary Society blog: 21 Lutetia, Rosetta's July target

Rosetta is ESA's comet rendezvous mission, which will enter orbit around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in May 2014 after a decade-long cruise. On the way to the comet, it's had three flybys of Earth and two planned encounters with asteroids, one with Šteins on September 5, 2008 and the other planned for 21 Lutetia on July 10, 2010 -- that is, in less than three months.

The large asteroid is about the size of Saturn's moon Epimetheus, and the article has an image of the latter made by some guy Gordan

[Lord Jubjub]

Four years from today, Rosetta is scheduled to enter orbit around Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

[Lord Jubjub]

Lutetia has been imaged by Rosetta. Here is the Planetary Society blog.

[01101001]

Planetary Society Blog: Three days to Lutetia for Rosetta!

On July 10, 2010, at 15:44:56 UTC, the Rosetta spacecraft will fly within 3,162 kilometers of the largest asteroid yet visited by a spacecraft. Named (21) Lutetia, the 132-by-101-by-76-kilometer-diameter body is a puzzle to astronomers, who have been unable to determine its composition.
[...] ESA is doing a live stream webcast to help people around the world follow one of the biggest space events of 2010. You can watch ESA's streams here, here, or here; [...]

Closest approach
2010, July 10, 0845 (Earth receive 0910) PDT, Saturday
2010, July 10, 1145 (Earth receive 1210) EDT, Saturday
2010, July 10, 1545 (Earth receive 1610) UTC, Saturday
2010, July 10, 1745 (Earth receive 1810) CEST, Saturday

Webcast begins about 10 minutes before closest approach, Earth receive.

ESA: Rosetta Blog :: Lutetia Flyby Timeline

[Lord Jubjub]

So now that Rosetta has passed Lutetia, anybody have news or pictures?

[Zvezdichko]

Yes!

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM44DZOFBG_index_0.html

http://webservices.esa.int/blog/blog/5/

This is indeed a great PR for the European Space Agency, a whole bunch of images have been released. Some people say why I don't complain about ESA. How could I complan when we had such a great PR?

[baric]

Yes!

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM44DZOFBG_index_0.html

http://webservices.esa.int/blog/blog/5/

This is indeed a great PR for the European Space Agency, a whole bunch of images have been released. Some people say why I don't complain about ESA. How could I complan when we had such a great PR?

Where is the video of Rosetta passing by the asteroid?

[Zvezdichko]

Make one using this:

http://www.esa.int/images/1_Lutetia_frames.jpg

[kucharek]

Lutetia and Saturn caught in one frame. Great shot!

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsyst...ia_saturn.html

[bunker9603]

Lutetia and Saturn caught in one frame. Great shot!

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsyst...ia_saturn.html

That is a fantastic image!

[KaiYeves]

Okay, so after finishing my multiple hours of homework for class tomorrow, I logged onto the computer for a bit and saw the new pictures of Lutetia. Then, I decided to dash off to the Peabody Museum before dinner, and chose to explore the Hall of Minerals, having only been in the dinosaur halls before. I touched an example of an iron meteorite they had on display... and then realized that, a few hours before, I'd seen pictures of something very like the progenitor of what I was touching.

And then I got very tingly all over.

[Swift]

Lutetia and Saturn caught in one frame. Great shot!

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsyst...ia_saturn.html

Minor thread-jack, but hi kucharek, how are you? Seems like it has been awhile since you've been around.

[Swift]

In her recent blog article she has a new photo montage comparing the relative sizes of all asteroids and comets visited by spacecraft as of June 2010.

The total of four comets and nine asteroid systems (including ten separate bodies) that have been examined up close by spacecraft are shown here to scale with each other (100 meters per pixel, in the fully enlarged version). Most of these were visited only briefly, in flyby missions, so we have only one point of view on each; only Eros and Itokawa were orbited and mapped completely.