Stunning view of Rosetta skimming past Mars (Forwarded)

ESA News
http://www.esa.int

25 February 2007

Stunning view of Rosetta skimming past Mars

This stunning view, showing portions of the Rosetta spacecraft with Mars in
the background, was taken by the Rosetta Lander Imaging System (CIVA) on
board Rosetta's Philae lander just four minutes before the spacecraft
reached closest approach to the Red Planet earlier this morning.

While the Rosetta orbiter instruments were switched off as planned during
several hours around closest approach, which occurred at 03:15 CET [0215
UTC] today, some of the lander instruments were operational and collected
data from Mars.

This incredible CIVA image was taken about 1000 kilometres from the planet's
surface. A portion of the spacecraft and one of its solar arrays are visible
in nice detail. Beneath, an area close to the Syrtis region is visible on
the planet's disk.

Philae lander in first autonomous operation

This is the first time that the Philae lander operated in a totally
autonomous mode, completely relying on the power of its own batteries. This
will be the case when the lander will have touched down on comet 67P
Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014 and will have to perform its scientific
measurements independently from the Rosetta orbiter.

A sequence of observations from today's Mars close approach were run
successfully, providing an important test for the science observations of
the comet nucleus to come. In addition to CIVA, the ROMAP instrument was
also switched on, collecting data about the magnetic environment of Mars.
The data sets acquired by both instruments are unique, as the presented
image summarises for CIVA.

The Philae lander still has still a long route ahead to ensure success for
its highly challenging venture, which requires a safe landing on an unknown
icy body, and performing a very complex programmed sequence of operations in
a highly constrained environment.

A number of updates and validation of some systems and instruments are still
required, which should be implemented during the upcoming cruise phase and
the Earth swingby in November 2007.

For more information:

Jean-Pierre Bibring
Philae Lander co-Lead Scientist and Philae/CIVA Principal Investigator
Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale - IAS, Orsay, France
Email: jean-pierre.bibring @ ias.u-psud.fr

Gerhard Schwehm
ESA Rosetta Mission Manager
Email: gerhard.schwehm @ esa.int

ESA/ESOC Communication Office
Darmstadt, Germany
Tel. +49-6151-90-2696

[NOTE: Images and weblinks supporting this release are available at
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMFTZM0LYE_index_1.html ]