Rosetta opens a steely eye for comet Honda's tail

[n_kitson]

A few days ago (July 26), Rosetta was temporarily placed in "active cruise mode". In addition, in early July, the RPC was used for the first time while the craft is in Near Sun Hibernation Mode. Link<br /><br />Fair use excerpt from the link:<br /><br /><font color="yellow">The Rosetta Plasma Consortium (RPC) was activated for five days on 4 July as the spacecraft crossed the tail of comet Honda. As this operation took place with the spacecraft in Near Sun Hibernation Mode, science and housekeeping telemetry were stored on-board and will be dumped at the next opportunity in August. In addition, SREM was kept active in the background for the entire period. </font><br /><br />It seems everything is going well:<br /><br /><font color="yellow">The thermal behaviour of the spacecraft is nominal and stable...The only instruments operated in the reporting period were RPC and SREM. RPC was activated between DOY 185 and 189 to take measurements as Rosetta crossed the tail of comet Honda. This is the first time an instrument performs scientific measurements with the spacecraft in Near Sun Hibernation Mode. </font><br /><br />Except some action in Feb 2007:<br /><br /><font color="yellow">The Mars Swingby Phase formally started on 28 July. The phase includes two deep space manoeuvres in September 2006 and April 2007, while the actual swingby will take place on 25 February 2007.</font><br /><br />