61 research outputs found
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Ptolemy: An instrument aboard the Rosetta lander Philae, to unlock the secrets of the solar system
Ptolemy is a miniature chemical analysis suite currently on board the ESA Rosetta comet lander Philae. This poster describes the operation of the instrument, and presents data generated thus far during a comprehensive ground testing programme
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Penetrator-deployed mass spectrometers for volatiles analysis at the Moon
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The operational plans for Ptolemy during the Rosetta mission
Ptolemy is a Gas Chromatography – Isotope Ratio – Mass Spectrometer (GC-IR-MS) instrument within the Philae Lander, part of ESA’s Rosetta mission. The primary aim of Ptolemy is to analyse the chemical and isotopic composition of solid comet samples. Samples are collected by the Sampler, Drill and Distribution (SD2) system and placed into ovens for analysis by three instruments on the Lander: COSAC, ÇIVA and/or Ptolemy. In the case of Ptolemy, the ovens can be heated with or without oxygen and the evolved gases separated by chemical and GC techniques for isotopic analysis. In addition Ptolemy can measure gaseous (i.e. coma) samples by either directly measuring the ambient environment within the mass spectrometer or by passively trapping onto an adsorbent phase in order to pre-concentrate coma species before desorbing into the mass spectrometer
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Demonstration of Volatiles Extraction from NU-LHT-2M with the ProSPA Instrument Breadboard
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An Experimental Approach to Understanding Sublimation Water Ice Losses from Planetary Regolith Analogue Mixtures for ESA’s PROSPECT Package
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Sample Containment For In Situ Analysis on the Moon: Testing Sealing Materials in the Presence of Dust
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Ptolemy: operations at 21 Lutetia as part of the Rosetta mission and future implications
The Rosetta mission and Ptolemy: Rosetta is the European Space Agency ‘Planetary Cornerstone’ mission intended to solve many of the unanswered questions surrounding the small bodies of the Solar System – the comets, the asteroids and the trans-Neptunians. Launched in March 2004 it is now over halfway through its cruise, leading up to entering orbit around the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in mid-2014. To date, this cruise has included three gravitational assist manoeuvres using Earth and one such manoeuvre using the gravity well of Mars, necessary to match the orbit of Rosetta to that of the target comet. In addition, targeted flybys of two asteroids have returned a plethora of data to be compared with the comet observations to come. These flybys were of the 5.3 km diameter E-type asteroid 2867 Šteins on September 5th 2008, and a similar 3,162 km flyby of the 100 km diameter asteroid 21 Lutetia on July 10th 2010, the focus of this work
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