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| INSTITUTET FÖR RYMDFYSIK | UPPSALA |
 |
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| Swedish Institute of Space Physics | (59°50.272′N, 17°38.786′E) |
Project work (15 c)/Examensarbete (15 hp) [BSc thesis]
Photoemission on Rosetta
Student: Andreas Johlander, Uppsala UniversitySupervisor: Anders Eriksson
Period: Spring 2012
Description
Rosetta is an ESA (European Space Agency) spacecraft, launched March 2, 2004 for arrival at its target comet in 2014. To be able to catch up with the comet, Rosetta has to take a long route through the planetary system, including three flybys of Earth and one of Mars. At the Swedish Institute of Space Physics in Uppsala, we have built an instrument called LAP (Langmuir probe) to study the ionized gas (plasma) close to the comet. LAP can also be used to study the emission of photoelectrons from the probe itself and by other surfaces of the spacecraft. This project aims at combining LAP measurements with geometry (position and attitude) data for the spacecraft to investigate the photoemission dependence on heliocentric distance, solar activity, and possible surface inhomogeneities on the probes. This is importance not only for the interpretation of future Rosetta data at the comet, but also of fundamental interest for other space missions.
Results
Final report
![[Rosetta]](http://www.space.irfu.se/rosetta/ros_lap.gif)
ESA's comet
hunter Rosetta, with the two Langmuir probes from IRF
Uppsala at the end of the booms protruding from the spacecraft. Each
probe is a sphere of 50 mm diameter. [Background image credit: ESA]