Sep 28 2016

From The Space Library

MEDIA ADVISORY M16-113 NASA Television to Provide Coverage of European Mission Comet Touchdown

NASA Television and the agency’s website will air the conclusion of ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) Rosetta mission from 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 decent of the spacecraft onto the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko at around 7:20 a.m.

From 8:15 to 10:15 a.m., NASA scientists and engineers involved in ESA’s Rosetta mission will be available for live broadcast interviews from the European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany. To schedule an interview, contact Mark Petrovich at 818-393-4359 or mark.petrovich@jpl.nasa.gov.

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 (JPL) 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.

RELEASE 16-097 NASA, China to Collaborate on Air Traffic Management Research

NASA and the Chinese Aeronautical Establishment (CAE) have signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on aeronautics research that will advance air transportation automation for U.S. and Chinese aviation operations in China.

The details of the agreement were discussed during NASA Administrator Charles Bolden’s visit to China in August, when he met with officials from CAE and the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

“China is expected to see a substantial increase in air travel in the near future,” Bolden said. “Our ability to work closely together will help to improve predictability of ground delays so air carriers can better plan departures to increase efficiencies. That will have a positive impact on U.S. carriers operating in China and the global aviation community.”

This five-year collaborative effort will acquire and analyze data from Chinese airports to identify potential efficiencies in air traffic management. The results of this collaboration are expected to lead to improvements in air transportation concepts and technologies, which will be beneficial to all nations.

This research complements the work currently being performed by the Airspace Operations and Safety Program within NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate. NASA will accomplish this work in coordination with U.S. airlines and industry. It is also highly synergistic with work being performed by CAE and its partners, which includes CAAC, the China Civil Aviation Authority, the China Air Traffic Management Bureau, Chinese airports and airlines.