Rosetta will on July 10th make its second close encounter with an Asteroid

ynotdu

This craft will encounter its second Asteroid on July 10th,there will be about two hours to gather data and photo's.Its last encounter was in 2008 with the Asteroid Steins.There will after all that time be only two hours during the fly-by to send photo's.It could be an exciting two hours though if like when the Marsrovers landed their photo's were live{albeit delayed by the speed of radio signals,which in the case of the mars were approx 20 mins after they were taken,but the website was kind enough to show their first pics as Live as they came into JPL staff who had devoted Years of their lives to that project.
This is a European Space Agency mission{ESA}
Lets hope they are as kind as NASA were to let us see the pics come in live!

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Rosetta's Blind Date With Asteroid Lutetia

Rosetta flew by asteroid Steins in 2008 and other space missions have encountered a handful of asteroids. Each asteroid has proven to be an individual and Lutetia is expected to continue the trend.by Staff Writers
Paris, France (ESA) Jun 16, 2010

Rosetta is heading for a blind date with asteroid Lutetia. Rosetta does not yet know what Lutetia looks like but beautiful or otherwise the two will meet on 10 July.

Like many first dates, Rosetta will meet Lutetia on a Saturday night, flying to within 3200 km of the space rock. Rosetta started taking navigational sightings of Lutetia at the end of May so that ground controllers can determine any course corrections required to achieve their intended flyby distance.
The close pass will allow around 2 hours of good imaging. The spacecraft will instantly begin beaming the data back to Earth and the first pictures will be released later that evening.
Rosetta flew by asteroid Steins in 2008 and other space missions have encountered a handful of asteroids. Each has proven to be an individual and Lutetia is expected to continue the trend.
For a start, no one knows what it looks like. Orbiting in the main belt of asteroids between Mars and Jupiter, it appears as a single point of light to ground telescopes. The continuous variation in its brightness makes it clear that Lutetia is rotating and has an uneven surface. These observations allow to estimate its shape and size, but their determinations all differ.
Initially it was thought that Lutetia is around 95 km in diameter but only mildly elliptical. A more recent estimate suggests 134 km, with a pronounced elongation. Rosetta will tell us for certain and will also investigate the composition of the asteroid, wherein lies another mystery.
By any measure, Lutetia is quite large. Planetary scientists believe that it is a primitive asteroid left on the shelf for billions of years because no planet consumed it as the formed. Indeed, most measurements appear to back this picture, making the asteroid out to be a 'C-type', which contains primitive compounds of carbon.
However, some measurements suggest that Lutetia is an 'M-type', which could mean there are metals in its surface. "If Lutetia is a metallic asteroid then we have found a real winner," says Rita Schulz, ESA Rosetta Project Scientist.
That is because although metallic asteroids do exist, they are thought to be fragments of the metallic core of larger asteroids that have since been shattered into pieces. If Lutetia is made of metal or even contains large amounts of metal, Dr Schulz says that the traditional asteroid classification scheme will need rethinking. "C-class asteroids should not have metals on their surfaces," she says.
Asteroid science stands to gain once this observational conundrum is resolved because Rosetta's data will provide a valuable collection of 'ground truths' that can be used to resolve conflicting ground-based observations not just for Lutetia but for other asteroids as well.
For 36 hours around the moment of closest approach, Rosetta will be in almost continuous contact with the ground. The only breaks will come as Earth rotates and engineers have to switch from one tracking station to another. Good contact is essential because the uncertainties in the asteroid's position and shape may demand last minute fine-tuning to keep it centred in Rosetta's instruments during the flyby. "The skeleton of the operation is in place, and we have the ability to update our plans at the last moment.

ynotdu

for anybody interested in this mission here is its official blog,full of great images and information.

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

Rosetta was Launched on March 2nd 2004 and will culminate in a landing on an Asteroid in May 2014.
Here is the full history of the craft so far and what is hoped for its future.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_(spacecraft)

Bleedin Delish

ynotdu wrote: »

for anybody interested in this mission here is its official blog,full of great images and information.

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

QUOTE]

Cool thanks for this

ynotdu

The time has come in for the flyby on the 10th.Philae is the lander part of Rosetta.its not due to land on its destination Asteroid until 2014 but its instruments will be 'Woken up' for the flyby to take the pictures and other data,
The problem is the time is given in CEST!,I thought i knew all time zones by now,does anybody know how CEST translates into more widely used time zones?? apparently from what i can gather it equates to UTC,with a caution that it might be UTC+1
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This observation sequence will take place during the asteroid flyby itself, with the lander switching on at 08:45 CEST on 10 July. It will be on throughout the flyby; closest approach is scheduled for 17:45 CEST. The lander and orbiter will be 3169 kilometres from Lutetia, according to recent estimates.

Three instruments on the lander will be switched on during the flyby:
+ The Rosetta Lander Magnetometer and Plasma Monitor, ROMAP, is a magnetometer and plasma monitor that will study the local magnetic field and monitor the interactions between the comet and the
+ MODULUS PTOLEMY is one of two evolved gas analysers, which obtains accurate measurements of isotopic ratios of light elements by heating solid samples to release volatiles.
+ The Cometary Sampling and Composition experiment, COSAC, is also an evolved gas analyser. It detects and identifies complex organic molecules from their elemental and molecular composition. ROMAP will be measuring continuously while it is on (between 7:06 am and 5:50 pm CEST) and will be looking for interactions between the asteroid's magnetic field and the solar wind. COSAC and PTOLEMY will perform a series of 'sniff' measurements (five by PTOLEMY and two by COSAC), which will be used to help determine whether or not the asteroid has an exosphere.

backboiler

ynotdu wrote: »

The problem is the time is given in CEST!,I thought i knew all time zones by now,does anybody know how CEST translates into more widely used time zones??

Widely used!? Central European Time (UTC+1) is used by four or five hundred million people in Europe alone. After UTC+8 (China) and UTC+5.5 (India) it's probably the most populous time zone on the Earth.
CEST is the Summer time adjustment so is UTC+2: subtract an hour to get IST.

ynotdu

backboiler wrote: »

Widely used!? Central European Time (UTC+1) is used by four or five hundred million people in Europe alone. After UTC+8 (China) and UTC+5.5 (India) it's probably the most populous time zone on the Earth.
CEST is the Summer time adjustment so is UTC+2: subtract an hour to get IST.

Hi backboiler,I suppose i should thank You except for the tone of your reply.
I receive news on Spaceflight from i would guess proably 50 websites/e-mail alerts.
That is the first time CEST has appeared on any in My experiance.
If You had taken more troble to read My post You would notice i am well aware of UTC.
CEST is what i asked about and found its correlation to UTC which i added as an edit to the post in highlights.

backboiler

No tone of any kind was intended; just trying to explain. Re-reading, I could have phrased it better though, I'll agree. /mutters something about going to bed when tired instead of looking at boards...

Anyway, if you'll forgive me for persisting, your highlighted part is still incorrect. CEST is UTC+2. It's an hour ahead of Irish time. My observation is that many people heed your posts here, so the pressure is on that you get it right.

ynotdu

backboiler wrote: »

No tone of any kind was intended; just trying to explain. Re-reading, I could have phrased it better though, I'll agree. /mutters something about going to bed when tired instead of looking at boards...

Anyway, if you'll forgive me for persisting, your highlighted part is still incorrect. CEST is UTC+2. It's an hour ahead of Irish time. My observation is that many people heed your posts here, so the pressure is on that you get it right.

Hey backboiler thanks for the reply!
believe Me on the 'posting when i am way too tired' front and making boo-boo's I think i am the winner of that by millions of light years!:D

anyway the important thing is that We got there and now have the facts!
blessed are us that hunger and thirst for knowledge!:)

Anyway a little bit more news to add is that the radio signals will take twenty five Minutes to reach Earth although i do not know yet if any site will show the pictures coming in live.

ynotdu

nice montage images from Rosetta as it was heading to its closest approach taken today.

The Spacecraft lost signal right as planned by ESA and has just recovered signal right as planned.So all the data at closest approach is now hopefully stored and ready to transmit to Earth.
ESA are giving the close encounter data photos first priority and will be back live on air at 10PM Irish time to present the Photo's{they hope:)}

ynotdu

A really thrilled mission management team just presented their first photo's of the closest approach,One of them could not resist first showing a picture taken before closest approach which includes Saturn in the view.
The rest are a few they chose from closest aproach and some are zoomed in on particulor areas,the final one shows Rosettas final image as it whizzed away to its next days work in four years time:)

2 stroke

Thanks ynotdu. Better than esa coverage.

djhaxman

Cheers ynotdu, those are great shots.

FunnyStuff

The top shot with Saturn is an absolute gem. Thanks

Dublin_Gunner

Excellent stuff. Was any of this on the news at all?

Some great shots, fair play to the ESA putting them on their blog so promptly.

Only 4 years to wait for the next few shots!

ynotdu

one final treat. The moment of closest approach,It can be enlarged to a hugh size!{You might have to press an I accept button to view it!Really!}
Also all image credits are courtesy of ESA{They insist on that too!:)}

http://www.esa.int/images/4_closest_approach,0.jpg

Dublin_Gunner

ynotdu wrote: »

one final treat. The moment of closest approach,It can be enlarged to a hugh size!{You might have to press an I accept button to view it!Really!}
Also all image credits are courtesy of ESA{They insist on that too!:)}

http://www.esa.int/images/4_closest_approach,0.jpg

Possible new wallpaper there! Excellent shot, cheers for posting this up

Beeker

Thanks ynotdu. Some stunning shots there:)