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Mupus – A Thermal and Mechanical Properties Probe for the Rosetta Lander Philae

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Abstract

MUPUS, the multi purpose sensor package onboard the Rosetta lander Philae, will measure the energy balance and the physical parameters in the near-surface layers – up to about 30 cm depth- of the nucleus of Rosetta’s target comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Moreover it will monitor changes in these parameters over time as the comet approaches the sun. Among the parameters studied are the density, the porosity, cohesion, the thermal diffusivity and conductivity, and temperature. The data should increase our knowledge of how comets work, and how the coma gases form. The data may also be used to constrain the microstructure of the nucleus material. Changes with time of physical properties will reveal timescales and possibly the nature of processes that modify the material close to the surface. Thereby, the data will indicate how pristine cometary matter sampled and analysed by other experiments on Philae really is.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Planetologie, Westfälische Wilhelms Universität, Münster, Germany

    Tilman Spohn

  2. Institut für Planetenforschung, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Berlin, Germany

    Tilman Spohn, Jörg Knollenberg, Johannes Benkhoff & Ekkehard Kührt

  3. Physikalisches Insitut Universität Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Karsten Seiferlin

  4. Planetary and Space Science Research Institute, CEPSAR The Open University, Milton, Keynes, UK

    Axel Hagermann, Andrew J. Ball & John C. Zarnecki

  5. Space Research Centre, Warsaw, Poland

    Marek Banaszkiewicz, Stanislaw Gadomski, Jerzy Grygorczuk, Marek Hlond, Jacek Krasowski & Wojciech Marczewski

  6. Institut für Weltraumforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Graz, Austria

    Günter Kargl & Norbert Kömle

  7. European Space Technology Centre ESA, Noordwijk, The Netherlands

    Johannes Benkhoff

  8. Telecommunication Institute PIT, Warsaw, Poland

    Wojciech Gregorczyk

Authors
  1. Tilman Spohn
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  2. Karsten Seiferlin
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  3. Axel Hagermann
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  7. Johannes Benkhoff
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  8. Stanislaw Gadomski
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  10. Jerzy Grygorczuk
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  11. Marek Hlond
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  12. Günter Kargl
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  13. Ekkehard Kührt
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  14. Norbert Kömle
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  15. Jacek Krasowski
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  16. Wojciech Marczewski
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  17. John C. Zarnecki
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Correspondence to Tilman Spohn.

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Spohn, T., Seiferlin, K., Hagermann, A. et al. Mupus – A Thermal and Mechanical Properties Probe for the Rosetta Lander Philae. Space Sci Rev 128, 339–362 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-006-9081-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-006-9081-2

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