Rosetta Post Launch Support 2009 - 2012

Rosetta任务原计划于2003年1月由阿丽亚娜5号发射，并于2011年底与其目标彗星Wirtanen会合。然而，由于之前的阿丽亚娜157次航班于2002年12月12日失败，发射被推迟。重新安排的发射于2004年3月2日在从法属圭亚那库鲁起飞的阿丽亚娜-5G 158航班上成功执行。目标彗星现在是67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko，计划于2014年会合，届时轨道器上的仪器将成像彗核，以便为Philae着陆器选择安全着陆点，该着陆器将于2014年11月交付给彗核。在撰写本报告时(2009年3月)，Rosetta已经飞行了约3886,000,000公里，进行了四次飞越，并因火星和E型小行星2867 Steins的飞越而受到国际媒体的报道。英国有一个由圆周率领导的实验，与该任务的着陆器部分有关，即模数(也称为托勒密)。该仪器由开放大学提出，从一开始就是与卢瑟福·阿普尔顿实验室合作的。具体来说，模数是一种微型气体处理系统，它将使用气相色谱和质谱分析相结合的方法，分析从彗星表面收集的材料。模数的目的是测量挥发物、挥发物、有机化合物和更难处理的成分(如无机矿物)中氢、碳、氮和氧(即具有生物重要性的元素)的稳定同位素组成，并识别和量化地表和次表面的微量化学成分。这笔赠款的目的是继续支持该仪器前往彗星，并为其科学运作做好准备。

The Rosetta mission was originally planned to be launched by Ariane 5 in January 2003 and to rendezvous with its target comet Wirtanen in late 2011. However, the launch was postponed due to the failure of the preceding Ariane flight 157 on 12 Dec 2002. The rescheduled launch was successfully executed on 2 March 2004 aboard Ariane-5G flight 158 from Kourou, French Guiana. The target comet is now 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, with rendezvous scheduled for 2014 at which point instruments on board the orbiter will image the comet nucleus to allow selection of a safe landing site for the Philae lander, which will be delivered to the comet nucleus in November 2014. At the time of writing (March 2009) Rosetta has travelled some 3,886,000,000 km, has undertaken four flybys, and has received international press coverage for flybys of both Mars and the E-type asteroid 2867 Steins. The UK has one PI-led experiment associated with the lander element of the mission, namely MODULUS (a.k.a. Ptolemy). The instrument was proposed by the Open University and from the start was a collaboration with the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. In detail MODULUS is a miniaturised gas processing system which will analyse materials collected from the surface of the comet, using a combination of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. The objectives of MODULUS are to make measurements of the stable isotopic compositions of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen (i.e. the biologically important elements) in volatiles, ices, organic compounds, and more refractory components such as inorganic minerals, and to identify and quantify the trace chemical composition of the surface and sub-surface. The purpose of the present grant is to continue to support the instrument on its journey to the comet, and to ready it for its scientific operations.