PIA17665: Electronics for a Spectrometer


Electronics for a Spectrometer

Caption:

For the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission, NASA provided part of the electronics package for an instrument called the Double Focusing Mass Spectrometer, which is part of the Swiss-built Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) instrument. ROSINA will be the first instrument with the resolution to separate two molecules that have approximately the same mass: molecular nitrogen and carbon monoxide. Clear identification of nitrogen will help scientists understand conditions at the time the solar system was born.

Background Info:

Rosetta is a mission of the European Space Agency, Paris, with contributions from its member states and NASA. Rosetta's Philae lander is provided by a consortium led by the German Aerospace Center, the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, the French National Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the U.S. contribution to the Rosetta mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

More information about Rosetta is available online at www.esa.int/rosetta and http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov .

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
System Periodic Comets
Target Type Comet
Mission Rosetta
Instrument Host Rosetta Orbiter Philae Lander
Host Type Orbiter Lander
Instrument Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA)
Detector
Extra Keywords Color
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2014-01-24
Date in Caption
Image Credit University of Bern/Lockheed Martin
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA17665
Identifier PIA17665