Preparations to the Rosetta spacecraft mission started as far back as 1993. That time NIIAR was awarded a contract in frames of activities to manufacture an alpha-particles and X-ray spectrometer APXS. “Curium-244 is a radioactive element. It emits alpha-particles, which bomb a surface of the substance. It generates the so-called secondary radiation, which is recorded by the spectrometer detectors. It is possible to found out what substances the rock consists of judging by changes in the secondary energy,” Mikhail Ryabinin, the head of Radiochemical Laboratory of the Radiochemical Sources and Preparations Department of NIIAR, explained.
The first information from has been already received on the Earth and specialists started decoding it. Earlier reports said that the alpha-proton spectrometer didn’t work. Possibly, its battery receives an insufficient amount of solar energy and the system has hibernated; however, the European Space Agency said that a signal has recently come from the module to say it is “still alive”. Maybe, the agency specialists would manage to render Philae “asleep”, and the battery would get energy in future when the comet would turn to face the Sun.
This is not the first time when the institute specialists participate in space projects. “As far back as the 80s we started working on the alpha-proton X-ray spectrometer with the colleagues from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry,” Mikhail Ryabinin says. “We made curium-244-based sources for them. We made sources for spectrometers to be installed at Phobos I and Phobos II. Regretfully, the expeditions failed. The apparatus for the Martian missions of the NASA in 1997, 2004 and 2012 were also equipped with our radioactive sources,” he said. The spectral analysis of soil done by one of the Mars rovers allowed assuming, with a high degree of probability, that in the past there was water in the form of snow, ice or frost in the planet.
Scientists from the Dukhov VNIIA are also participated in studies of the Red Planet. The Russian instrument DAN (dynamic albedo of neutrons) operated on board of the Curosity Mars rover. The instrument has a built-in neutron generator designed by VNIIA specialists. The DAN has demonstrated that in some places of Mars a water content reaches 6%, or as in deserts on the Earth. These results were not possible to obtain by other ways.
The Rosetta was launched to the Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet on March 2, 2014. The flight program was very complex: even small departures during four maneuvering operations near the Earth and Mars could affect the mission results. However, everything ended without problems: on November 12 the module Philae, launched by the Rosetta approached the comet and started the research program. It is to determine parameters of the nucleus of a comet, study its chemical composition and changes in the comet activity over time. This is a marking event, since for the first time in history an apparatus landed on the surface of a comet.
Last week, the NASA specialists demonstrated a 3D picture of the Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet to the public. This picture was built by combining pictures taken by the descending explorer Philae. In addition, the European Space Agency has made public some data obtained by the instrument MUPUS. Its temperature detector was in operation during the approach and after rebound of the Philae’s explorer. In the place where the explorer ceased bounding temperature showed minus 153°C. “This could have happened due to transfer of heat to the nearby cold wall or the explorer got in a heap of cold dust,” Jörg Knollenberg, instrument scientist for MUPUS at DLR says.
