The ESA Rosetta mission

Special Lecture

MATT TAYLOR NL

Project Scientist, European Space Agency, Noordwijk

Sunday, 6 September, 18:00 - 19:00 Hall 1

Abstract

The Rosetta Mission is the third cornerstone mission of the ESA programme Horizon 2000. The aim of the mission is to map the comet 67-P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by remote sensing, to examine its environment insitu and its evolution in the inner solar system. The lander Philae is the first device to land on a comet and perform in-situ science on the surface. Launched in March 2004 and after a number of gravity assists and various asteroid fly–bys, the spacecraft entered deep space hibernation in June 2011. Nearly 10 years after launch on 20th January 2014 at 10:00 UTC the spacecraft woke up from hibernation, and subsequently successfully entered into orbit around the comet and deployed Philae to the surface. This talk will summarise the mission up to now operationally and scientifically, and maybe a look forward to what is next if there is time…

Biography

Matt Taylor was born in London and grew up in Manor Park. Following high school in Mayfield High School, Goodmayes, Essex, he gained his undergraduate Physics degree at the University of Liverpool, and a PhD from Imperial College London. His career has focused on in-situ space plasma measurements, working in Europe and US on the the four spacecraft ESA Cluster mission, leading to a post at ESA which started in 2005 working in the area of project science for Cluster and the ESA-China Double Star mission. His studies have focused on energetic particle dynamics in near-Earth space and in the interaction of the Sun's solar wind with the Earths magnetic field, particularly focusing on how boundary layer interactions evolve, leading to 70 first or co-authored papers. In 2013 he was appointed as the project scientist on the Rosetta mission.