Champollion (spacecraft)
Encyclopedia
Champollion was a planned comet
ary rendezvous and landing spacecraft
. It was named after Jean-François Champollion
, a French Egyptologist known for translating the Rosetta stone
.
/CNES
Champollion was to be one of two surface science packages for the Rosetta mission to comet Wirtanen, alongside the German-led RoLand
. Champollion was to provide for return of cometary samples
to Earth.
This part of the Rosetta mission was withdrawn in late 1996 due to lack of funding from JPL.
as Deep Space 4 / Space Technology 4, again as a joint project of NASA and CNES. In this version, Champollion would be a stand-alone project consisting of an orbiter and a lander, with the focus shifted somewhat to engineering validation of new technologies rather than pure science.
As of March 1999 http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?1999LPI....30.1142W, the baseline mission was to launch in April 2003, reaching comet Tempel 1 in 2006. The sample return element of the mission was at this point contingent on sufficient funding/resources, possibly being replaced with a demonstration of related capabilities.
The lander was approximately 1.5 m high weighing 160 kg; it was to autonomously navigate to the comet from 50 km altitude and anchor itself with a spike. The planned payload included:
The orbiter was to carry cameras and a dust monitor.
Later in 1999, Space Technology 4 was scaled back to a single spacecraft http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=3MAY199915444988%40kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov with no sample return; it was cancelled entirely on July 1, 1999, due to budgetary constraints. http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/st4/
Comet
A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet...
ary rendezvous and landing spacecraft
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
. It was named after Jean-François Champollion
Jean-François Champollion
Jean-François Champollion was a French classical scholar, philologist and orientalist, decipherer of the Egyptian hieroglyphs....
, a French Egyptologist known for translating the Rosetta stone
Rosetta Stone
The Rosetta Stone is an ancient Egyptian granodiorite stele inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The decree appears in three scripts: the upper text is Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the middle portion Demotic script, and the lowest Ancient Greek...
.
Rosetta surface science package
As originally envisaged, the joint NASANASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
/CNES
CNES
The is the French government space agency . Established under President Charles de Gaulle in 1961, its headquarters are located in central Paris and it is under the supervision of the French Ministries of Defence and Research...
Champollion was to be one of two surface science packages for the Rosetta mission to comet Wirtanen, alongside the German-led RoLand
Roland
Roland was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the Matter of France. Historically, Roland was military governor of the Breton March, with responsibility for defending the frontier of Francia against the Bretons...
. Champollion was to provide for return of cometary samples
Sample return mission
A sample return mission is a spacecraft mission with the goal of returning tangible samples from an extraterrestrial location to Earth for analysis. Sample return missions may bring back merely atoms and molecules or a deposit of complex compounds such as dirt and rocks...
to Earth.
This part of the Rosetta mission was withdrawn in late 1996 due to lack of funding from JPL.
Deep Space 4 / Space Technology 4
Champollion was revived under NASA's New Millennium programNew Millennium program
New Millennium Program is a NASA project with focus on engineering validation of new technologies for space applications. Funding for the program was eliminated from the FY2009 budget by the 110th United States Congress, effectively leading to its cancellation.The spacecraft in the New Millennium...
as Deep Space 4 / Space Technology 4, again as a joint project of NASA and CNES. In this version, Champollion would be a stand-alone project consisting of an orbiter and a lander, with the focus shifted somewhat to engineering validation of new technologies rather than pure science.
As of March 1999 http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?1999LPI....30.1142W, the baseline mission was to launch in April 2003, reaching comet Tempel 1 in 2006. The sample return element of the mission was at this point contingent on sufficient funding/resources, possibly being replaced with a demonstration of related capabilities.
The lander was approximately 1.5 m high weighing 160 kg; it was to autonomously navigate to the comet from 50 km altitude and anchor itself with a spike. The planned payload included:
- CHARGE, a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer
- CIRCLE, cameras/microscope/IR spectrometerInfrared spectroscopyInfrared spectroscopy is the spectroscopy that deals with the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum, that is light with a longer wavelength and lower frequency than visible light. It covers a range of techniques, mostly based on absorption spectroscopy. As with all spectroscopic...
- CIVA, panoramic cameras
- CPPP, "physical properties probes" to be driven into the cometary surface
- SATM drill mechanism
- gamma rayGamma ray spectrometerA Gamma-Ray Spectrometer, or , is an instrument for measuring the distribution of the intensity of gamma radiation versus the energy of each photon....
/neutron spectrometer
The orbiter was to carry cameras and a dust monitor.
Later in 1999, Space Technology 4 was scaled back to a single spacecraft http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=3MAY199915444988%40kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov with no sample return; it was cancelled entirely on July 1, 1999, due to budgetary constraints. http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/st4/