CHROMATOGRAPHY 59
One large leap for gas chromatography
Norbert Reuter and Gary Lee explore the way in which gas chromatography columns are making a difference to analysis being carried out thousands of miles from home.
Norbert Reuter et Gary Lee s’intéressent aux différences qui résultent des colonnes chromatographiques en phase gazeuse pour les analyses conduites à des milliers de kilomètres du site.
Norbert Reuter und Gary Lee untersuchen die Art, wie Gaschromatographiesäulen Analysen verändern, die tausende von Kilometern von zu Hause durchgeführt werden.
I
n 1999, the European Space Agency (ESA) started the Rosetta Mission. Tis ground breaking venture would be the first ever landing of a man-made spacecraft on a comet, providing an unprecedented insight into what goes on beyond our atmosphere. With the analysis taking place outside the confines of a laboratory, it was essential that the equipment on board Rosetta was completely reliable and capable of sending back accurate, valuable information to researchers on the ground.
Fig. 1. Touchdown: The Philae lander is named after the Nile island Philae.
Photo: ESA/ATG Medialab
Launched in March 2004 on an Ariane 5 rocket and controlled from the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), in Darmstadt, Germany, Rosetta is the first mission in history to engage with a comet, accompany it on its orbit of the Sun, and deploy a lander onto its surface. During its journey
towards comet 67P/Churyumov- Gerasimenko which took place over a decade, the spacecraft has already been passed by two asteroids: 2867 Steins in 2008 and 21 Lutetia in 2010.
Te probe is named after the well-known Egyptian Rosetta stone, which features a decree in three individual languages. Meanwhile, the lander is named after the Nile island Philae – it was here that an obelisk was discovered with inscriptions that, when compared with the Rosetta stone, provided a greater understanding of the Egyptian writing system. Similarly, it is hoped that these spacecraft will further our knowledge of comets and the early Solar System.
Following its launch, Rosetta needed several acceleration bypasses by Earth and Mars to finally follow the path of 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko‘s and will arrive at the comet in August 2014 with the lander deployed in November. Te mission will orbit the comet for 17 months and undertake the most detailed study of a comet ever attempted.
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