Planetary Defense Ground Zero: MASCOT's View on the Rocks - an Update between First Images and Sample Return

At 01:57:20 UTC on October 3rd, 2018, after 3½ years of cruise aboard the JAXA spacecraft HAYABUSA2 and about 3 months in the vicinity of its target, the MASCOT lander was separated successfully by from an altitude of 41 m. After a free-fall of only ~5m51s MASCOT made first contact with C-type near-Earth and potentially hazardous asteroid (162173) Ryugu, by hitting a big boulder. MASCOT then bounced for ~11m3s, in the process already gathering valuable information on mechanical properties of the surface before it came to rest. It was able to perform science measurements at 3 different locations on the surface of Ryugu and took many images of its spectacular pitch-black landscape. MASCOT’s payload suite was designed to investigate the fine-scale structure, multispectral reflectance, thermal characteristics and magnetic properties of the surface. Somewhat unexpectedly, MASCOT encountered very rugged terrain littered with large surface boulders. Observing in-situ, it confirmed the absence of fine particles and dust as already implied by the remote sensing instruments aboard the HAYABUSA2 spacecraft. After some 17h of operations, MASCOT‘s mission ended with the last communication contact as it followed Ryugu’s rotation beyond the horizon as seen from HAYABUSA2. Soon after, its primary battery was depleted. We present a broad overview of the recent scientific results of the MASCOT mission from separation through descent, landing and in-situ investigations on Ryugu until the end of its operation and relate them to the needs of planetary defense interactions with asteroids. We also recall the agile, responsive and sometimes serendipitous creation of MASCOT, the two-year rush of building and delivering it to JAXA’s HAYABUSA2 spacecraft in time for launch, and the four years of in-flight operations and on-ground testing to make the most of the brief on-surface mission

Rosetta Lander: Philae on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Rosetta is a Cornerstone Mission of the ESA Horizon 2000 programme. In August 2014 it reached comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko after a 10 year cruise. Both its nucleus and coma have been studied with its orbiter payload of eleven PI instruments, allowing the selection of a landing site for Philae. The landing on the comet nucleus successfully took place on November 12th, 2014. Philae touched the comet surface seven hours after ejection from the orbiter. After several bounces it came to rest and continued to send scientific data to Earth. All ten instruments of its payload have been operated at least once. Due to the fact that the Lander could not be anchored, the originally planned first scientific sequence had to be modified. Philae went into hibernation on November 15th, after its batteries ran out of energy. Re-activation of the Lander was expected for May/June 2015, when CG would be closer to the sun and, indeed, radio contact with the Lander was re-established on June 13th and for (so far) seven more occasions. Rosetta is an ESA mission with contributions from its member states and NASA. Rosetta's Philae lander is provided by a consortium le al contributions from Hungary,UK, Finland, Ireland and Austri

Rosetta Lander - Landing and operations on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

The Rosetta Lander Philae is part of the ESA Rosetta Mission which reached comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko after a 10 year cruise in August 2014. Since then, Rosetta has been studying both its nucleus and coma with instruments aboard the Orbiter. On November 12th, 2014 the Lander, Philae, was successfully delivered to the surface of the comet and operated for approximately 64 h after separation from the mother spacecraft. Since the active cold gas system aboard the Lander as well as the anchoring harpoons did not work, Philae bounced after the first touch-down at the planned landing site “Agilkia”. At the final landing site, “Abydos”, a modified First Scientific Sequence was performed. Due to the unexpectedly low illumination conditions and a lack of anchoring the sequence had to be adapted in order to minimize risk and maximize the scientific output. All ten instruments could be activated at least once, before Philae went into hibernation. In June 2015, the Lander contacted Rosetta again having survived successfully a long hibernation phase. This paper describes the Lander operations around separation, during descent and on the surface of the comet. We also address the partly successful attempts to re-establish contact with the Lander in June/July, when the internal temperature & power received were sufficient for Philae to become active again

Rosetta Lander - Philae: Operations on 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenki

Philae is a comet Lander, part of Rosetta which is a Cornerstone Mission of the ESA Horizon 2000 programme. Philae successfully landed on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on November 12th, 2014 and performed a First Scientific Sequence, based on the energy stored in it’s on board batteries. All ten instruments of the payload have been operated at least once. Due to the fact that the final landing site (after several bounces) was poorly illuminated, Philae went into hibernation on November 15th, and the teams hoped for a wake-up at closer heliocentric distance

Rosetta Lander - After seven years of cruise, prepared for hibernation

Rosetta is a Cornerstone Mission of the ESA Horizon 2000 programme. It is going to rendezvous with comet 67P/ Churyumov–Gerasimenko after a 10 year cruise and will study both its nucleus and coma with an orbiting spacecraft and a landed platform. The latter, named Philae, has been designed to land softly on the comet nucleus and is equipped with 10 scientific instruments to perform in-situ studies of the cometary material. Philae has been provided by a large international consortium. Rosetta was successfully launched on March 2, 2004 from Kourou in French Guyana. Philae is operated by the Lander Control Centre (LCC) at DLR, Cologne and the Science Operations and Navigation Centre (SONC) at CNES, Toulouse via the European Spacecraft Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt. The scientific lead is at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Science (Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany) and the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale (Paris). Since launch, the Lander has been operational during commissioning, several checkouts, two planetary swing-bys at the Earth and one at Mars, fly-bys at asteroids Sˇ teins and Lutetia as well as some additional activities for calibration and failure investigation. Payload checkout PC13 was the last Lander activation prior to a deep space hibernation phase of Rosetta, which started in June 2011 and will last until approaching the comet in 2014. The paper describes the various Lander activities over the past seven years and gives an outlook of near- and on-comet operations. Landing is foreseen in November 2014 at a heliocentric distance of 3 AU. Prior to that, detailed characterization of the comet nucleus has to be performed with the Rosetta Orbiter instruments

HP3 – Experiment on InSight Mission Wrap-up Operations on Mars

HP3 – the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package – is an experiment package on-board the NASA Mars Mission InSight (Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigation, Geodesy, and Heat Transport) to investigate the interior structure of Mars. InSight waslaunched on May 5th, 2018, landed successfully on Mars on November 26th, 2018, and is now operating successfully for more than one Martian year. The main science experiments of the InSight mission are a seismometer (SEIS), the HP3 heat flow probe and the Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment (RISE). An Auxciliary Payload Sensor Suite (APSS) consisting of atmospheric pressure, wind and temperature sensors as well as a magnetometer complement the payload. After landing on Mars the seismometer and HP3 were deployed to the Martian surface by the robotic arm of the lander. HP3 is the contribution of DLR (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V., Germany) to the InSight mission. It is designed to determine the geothermal heat flux by emplacing a suit of temperature sensors to a maximum depth of 5 m, by means of a mechanical hammering mechanism. HP3 is designed to measure the thermal conductivity as function of depth during the hammering phase, and to monitor the thermal profile of the subsurface for a full Martian year

Rosetta Lander - Philae: Operations on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, analysis of wake-up and final state

The Lander Philae, part of the ESA Rosetta mission successfully landed on comet 67P/Churyumov- Gerasimenko on November 12th, 2014. After several (unplanned) bounces it performed a First Scientific Sequence (FSS), based on the energy stored in its on board batteries. All ten instruments of the payload aboard Philae have been operated at least once. Due to the fact that the final landing site was poorly illuminated, Philae went into hibernation on November 15th. Signals from the Lander were received again in June and July 2015, which indicated multiple awakening episodes of the lander. However, various attempts to re-establish reliable and stable communications links failed. Based on the analysis of the data gained during FSS, and during the contacts in June and July 2015 we draw conclusions on the state of Philae. In addition, images from the OSIRIS camera aboard the Rosetta Orbiter have allowed the identification of the exact position of Philae and its attitude, relative to the local surface terrain. This paper also gives an overview of the implications of Philae results for future engineering comet models, required particularly for the design of in-situ (landing) or sample return missions. Rosetta is an ESA mission with contributions from its member states and NASA. Rosetta's Philae Lander is provided by a consortium led by DLR, MPS, CNES and ASI with additional contributions from Hungary, UK, Finland, Ireland and Austria

HP³ - Experiment on InSight Mission - Operations on Mars

HP3 – the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package – is an experiment package on-board the NASA Mars Mission InSight (Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigation, Geodesy, and Heat Transport). The InSight Mission investigates the interior structure of Mars using seismological and geodetical measurements and quantifies the planetary heat budget by measuring the surface planetary heat flow. InSight was launched on the 5th May 2018 and landed successfully on Mars on the 26th November 2018 and is now operating on Mars successfully for more than one Martian year. The main payloads of the InSight lander are a seismometer (SEIS), the HP3 heat flow probe and radiometer (for surface brightness temperature), as well as the radio science Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment (RISE). An ancillary sensor package consisting of atmospheric pressure and temperature sensors (APSS) as well as a magnetometer complement the payload. After landing on Mars the seismometer and HP3 were deployed onto the Martian surface by the robotic arm of the lander. HP3 is the contribution of DLR (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V., Germany) to the InSight mission. It is designed to determine the geothermal heat flux by measuring the thermal conductivity and the rate of temperature increase with depth. HP3 is composed of a set of thermal sensors to determine thermal conductivity and subsurface temperature (TEM), a self-penetrating probe (termed the mole) to emplace sensors in the subsurface, two measurement suites to determine the depth of the thermal sensors (TLM & STATIL), a radiometer to determine the surface temperature forcing (RAD). The instrument is controlled by (backend) electronics (BEE) within the InSight lander’s thermal enclosure. The HP3 deployable elements are housed inside a support structure, and electrical connections to the lander and BEE are provided by the HP3 supply tethers [1]. The InSight mission has now been operating on Mars for more than one martian year. The radiometer has been monitoring the surface brightness temperature for a full martian year and has measured thermal effects during Phobos eclipses. The heat flow aspect of the HP3 investigation has unfortunately been less successful. The mole penetration initially proceeded no deeper than ~37 cm (tip depth below surface). During the past 2 Earth years, extensive recovery activities for the mole were performed on Mars to get the mole penetrated deeper into the surface. These activities were supported by the overall InSight team. The mole is now in its final position intruded into the upper surface layer (mole tilt ~30°) and covered with soil. No further penetration attempts will be performed