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cover/spine 4/21/04 1:19 PM Page 1 SP-1276 SP-1276 ESA’s Report to the 35th COSPAR Meeting Report to the 35th COSPAR ESA’s ESA’s Report to the 35th COSPAR Meeting Paris, France July 2004 SecA.qxd 4/21/04 1:15 PM Page 1 SP-1276 June 2004 ESA’s Report to the 35th COSPAR Meeting Paris, France July 2004 SecA.qxd 4/21/04 1:15 PM Page 2 Contributors This report on the scientific missions of the European Space Agency was written by: A. Chicarro F. Jansen R. Marsden T. Sanderson J. Clavel P. Jakobsen H. Opgenoorth R. Schulz C.P. Escoubet O. Jennrich A. Parmar G. Schwehm F. Favata M. Kessler M. Perryman H. Svedhem B. Foing J.-P. Lebreton G. Pilbratt J. Tauber M. Fridlund D. Lumb R. Reinhard C. Winkler A. Gimenez D. Macchetto A. Salama The authors acknowledge the use of published and unpublished material supplied by experimenters, observers and colleagues. The report was completed on 30 April 2004. Communications should be addressed to the scientific editor: Prof. A. Gimenez ESA Research and Scientific Support Department European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) Postbus 299 NL-2200 AG Noordwijk The Netherlands Tel: +31 71 565-3552 Email: [email protected] Cover: Mars Express is returning stunning views of Mars. The cover shows an overhead view of the complex caldera at the summit of Olympus Mons, the highest volcano in the Solar System. Olympus Mons has an average elevation of 22 km and the caldera has a depth of about 3 km. This is the first high-resolution colour image of the complete caldera. It was recorded by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) of Mars Express from a height of 273 km on 21 January 2004. Resolution is 12 m per pixel; the image is centred at 18.3°N / 227°E; south is at the top. Edited by: A. Wilson Printed in The Netherlands Published and distributed by: ESA Publications Division ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands Copyright © 2004 European Space Agency ISBN 92-9092-989-8 ISSN 0379-6566 Price: €40 SecA.qxd 4/21/04 1:15 PM Page 3 Contents 1. Introduction . .1 2. Missions in Operation 2.1 Hubble Space Telescope . .9 2.2 Ulysses . .15 2.3 SOHO . .21 2.4 Cassini/Huygens . .27 2.5 XMM-Newton . .35 2.6 Cluster . .41 2.7 Integral . .47 2.8 Mars Express . .53 2.9 SMART-1 . .57 2.10 Double Star . .61 2.11 Rosetta . .63 3. Mission in Post-Operations/Archival Phase 3.1 ISO . .71 4. Projects under Development 4.1 Herschel . .81 4.2 Planck . .87 4.3 Venus Express . .91 4.4 Contributions to Nationally-led Missions 4.4.1 COROT . .95 4.4.2 Microscope . .96 4.4.3 Astro-F . .97 4.4.4 Astro-E2 . .97 5. Missions under Definition 5.1 BepiColombo . .101 5.2 Gaia . .105 5.3 LISA Pathfinder . .109 5.4 LISA . .113 5.5 JWST . .117 5.6 Eddington . .121 6. Missions under Study 6.1 Solar Orbiter . .125 6.2 Darwin . .127 6.3 XEUS . .131 6.4 Hyper . .133 6.5 EUSO . .135 6.6 Lobster-ISS . .137 6.7 ROSITA . .139 Acronyms . .143 SecA.qxd 4/21/04 1:15 PM Page 5 1. Introduction SecA.qxd 4/21/04 1:15 PM Page 6 Table 1.1. ESRO/ESA scientific spacecraft. Launch date End of operational life Mission Launched ESRO-II 17 May 1968 9 May 1971 Cosmic rays, solar X-rays ESRO-IA 3 October 1968 26 June 1970 Auroral and polar-cap phenomena, ionosphere HEOS-1 5 December 1968 28 October 1975 Interplanetary medium, bow shock ESRO-IB 1 October 1969 23 November 1969 As ESRO-IA HEOS-2 31 January 1972 2 August 1974 Polar magnetosphere, interplanetary medium TD-1 12 March 1972 4 May 1974 Astronomy (UV, X- and gamma-ray) ESRO-IV 26 November 1972 15 April 1974 Neutral atmosphere, ionosphere, auroral particles Cos-B 9 August 1975 25 April 1982 Gamma-ray astronomy Geos-1 20 April 1977 23 June 1978 Dynamics of the magnetosphere ISEE-2 22 October 1977 26 September 1987 Sun/Earth relations and magnetosphere IUE 26 January 1978 30 September 1996 Ultraviolet astronomy Geos-2 24 July 1978 October 1985 Magnetospheric fields, waves and particles Exosat 26 May 1983 9 April 1986 X-ray astronomy FSLP 28 November 1983 8 December 1983 Multi-disciplinary; First Spacelab Payload Giotto 2 July 1985 23 July 1992 Comet Halley and Comet Grigg-Skjellerup encounters Hipparcos 8 August 1989 15 August 1993 Astrometry Hubble Space 24 April 1990 UV/optical/near-IR astronomy Telescope Ulysses 6 October 1990 March 2008 Heliosphere Eureca 31 July 1992 24 June 1993 Multi-disciplinary ISO 17 November 1995 8 April 1998 Infrared astronomy SOHO 2 December 1995 March 2007 Sun (including interior) and heliosphere Huygens/Cassini 15 October 1997 Titan probe/Saturn orbiter XMM-Newton 10 December 1999 March 2008 X-ray spectroscopy Cluster 16 July/9 August 2000 December 2005 3-D space plasma investigation Integral 17 October 2002 December 2008 Gamma-ray astronomy Mars Express 2 June 2003 30 November 2005 Mars exploration SMART-1 27 September 2003 September 2005 Navigation with solar-electric propulsion Rosetta 2 March 2004 December 2015 Comet rendezvous Planned launches Venus Express November 2005 Venus exploration Planck 2007 Cosmic microwave background Herschel 2007 Far-infrared and submillimetre astronomy LISA Pathfinder 2007-2008 LISA Technology Package JWST 2011 Next-generation space telescope BepiColombo 2011-2012 Mission to Mercury Gaia ≤ 2012 Galaxy mapper LISA 2013 Search for gravitational waves Solar Orbiter 2013-2014 Sun (including polar regions) and inner heliosphere 2 SecA.qxd 4/21/04 1:15 PM Page 7 1. Introduction The report for the 35th COSPAR Meeting covers, as in previous issues, the missions of the Scientific Programme of ESA in the areas of astronomy, Solar System exploration and fundamental physics. This year’s COSPAR Meeting occurs only weeks after the Saturn-orbit insertion of the Cassini spacecraft – carrying Europe’s Huygens probe to explore the atmosphere of Titan – and at the same time as the launch of the second satellite of the Double Star project. A unique characteristic of ESA’s science programme in 2004 is the unprecedented number of missions in operation: 14 satellites covering 11 different missions are providing excellent data to the worldwide scientific community. The Research and Scientific Support Department (RSSD) of ESA is responsible for the science operations of these missions and makes every effort to ensure the best possible science return. The Department also supports the realisation of approved projects in all phases of their development. 2003 and early 2004 saw the successful launches of three missions that are significant steps in European exploration of the Solar System. The Mars Express launch from Baikonur in June 2003 was followed by Mars-orbit insertion in December 2003. The subsequent delivery of excellent science data included outstanding stereoscopic high-resolution images. Early results included the confirmation of water ice on the surface of Mars. Unfortunately the Beagle 2 lander, carrying a suite of instruments to analyse possible traces of extinct or extant life, did not communicate with the orbiter. The first Small Mission for Advanced Research in Technology, SMART-1, was launched in September 2003 from Kourou, French Guiana, by Ariane-5. This is a technology mission to test navigation through the Solar System by solar-electric propulsion. Its trajectory will lead to lunar orbit and permit new observations of the Moon from the end of 2004. Rosetta was launched in March 2004 from Kourou by Ariane-5 to rendezvous with Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014 to search for clues on the origin of the Solar System. After a year’s delay, its successful launch provides Europe with the opportunity to analyse a comet nucleus in situ using a lander and long-duration monitoring of its behaviour by an orbiter. Rosetta will also fly past two asteroids en route to the comet. This is a major step forward since our last mission to understand the physics of comets: Giotto flew past comet Halley in 1986 and then Grigg- Skjellerup in 1992. In December 2003, the first of two Double Star satellites, a cooperative effort with the Chinese National Space Administration, was launched from China to explore the Earth’s magnetosphere, complementing the science being obtained by the four Cluster satellites. The second is due to be launched in July 2004. The next challenge, in addition to the continuing scientific exploitation of our in-orbit satellites, is the launch of Venus Express in November 2005. A follow-on development from Mars Express, it will also be launched from Baikonur, to investigate the hostile atmosphere of the Sun’s second planet. Then follow several astronomy missions. Planck is devoted to investigation of the fine spatial variation of the cosmic background radiation, and Herschel is a powerful far-infrared and sub-millimetre observatory. They will be launched together in 2007 and stationed at the L2 Lagrangian point on the Earth-Sun line. In addition, the COROT French-led mission to study stellar oscillations and search for extrasolar planets will be launched in mid-2006 in cooperation with ESA. In the field of fundamental physics, the Microscope cooperative mission, for launch in November 2007, will test the Equivalence Principle. In the meantime, missions in orbit continue to provide excellent results. XMM- 3 SecA.qxd 4/21/04 1:15 PM Page 8 Newton, launched in 1999, continues to deliver new views of the X-ray Universe thanks to its large photon-collection capability and throughput.
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