• NASA TV Coverage of European Mission Comet Touchdow (Rosetta)

    From baalke@1:2320/100 to sci.space.news on Thu Sep 29 22:28:22 2016
    From Newsgroup: sci.space.news


    http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6630

    NASA TV Coverage of European Mission Comet Touchdown
    Jet Propulsion Laboratory
    September 28, 2016

    NASA Television and the agency's website will air the conclusion of ESA's (European Space Agency's) Rosetta mission from 3:15 to 5 a.m PDT (6:15
    to 8 a.m. EDT) Friday, Sept. 30, with NASA commentary, interviews and
    analysis of the successful mission. The Rosetta mission will end with
    the controlled descent of the spacecraft onto the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
    at around 4:20 a.m. PDT (7:20 a.m. EDT).

    Rosetta was launched in 2004 carrying 11 science instruments, with several contributions from NASA including: the Microwave Instrument for Rosetta Orbiter (MIRO); the Alice spectrograph; the Ion and Electron Sensor (IES);
    and the Double Focusing Mass Spectrometer (DFMS) electronics package for
    the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion Neutral Analysis (ROSINA). NASA's Deep Space Network supports ESA's Ground Station Network for spacecraft tracking and navigation.

    The spacecraft arrived at its destination comet on Aug. 6, 2014, becoming
    the first mission in history to rendezvous with a comet and escort it
    as it orbits the sun. About two months later, the small Philae lander
    deployed from Rosetta touched down on the comet and bounced several times before alighting on the surface. Philae obtained the first images ever
    taken from the surface of a comet, and sent back valuable scientific data
    for several days. ESA is ending the mission because the spacecraft's ever-increasing
    distance from the sun has resulted in significantly reduced solar power
    to operate the spacecraft and its instruments.

    Comets are time capsules containing primitive material left over from
    the epoch when the sun and its planets formed. Rosetta is the first spacecraft to witness up close how a comet changes as it is subjected to the increasing intensity of the sun's radiation. Observations will help scientists learn
    more about the origin and evolution of our solar system and the role comets may have played in the formation of planets.

    In addition to NASA's contribution, Rosetta's Philae lander was provided
    by a consortium led by the German Aerospace Center, Max Planck Institute
    for Solar System Research, French National Space Agency, and Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages
    the U.S. contributions to the Rosetta mission for the agency's Science
    Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL also built the MIRO and hosts its principal investigator, Mark Hofstadter. The Southwest Research Institute developed Rosetta's IES and Alice instruments and hosts their principal investigators, James Burch for IES and Alan Stern for the Alice instrument.

    NASA TV streaming video, downlink and updated scheduling information is
    at:

    http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

    The landing coverage will also be streamed live at:

    http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2

    For more information on the U.S. instruments aboard Rosetta, visit:

    http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov

    News Media Contact
    DC Agle
    Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
    818-393-9011
    agle@jpl.nasa.gov

    Dwayne Brown / Laurie Cantillo
    NASA Headquarters, Washington
    202-358-1726 / 202-358-1077
    dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov / laura.l.cantillo@nasa.gov

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