Philae (spacecraft) - Instruments

Instruments

The science payload of the lander consists of 10 instruments with 26.7 kg making up nearly one third of the mass of the lander.

  • APXS (Alpha Proton X-ray Spectrometer) APXS analyzes the chemical element composition of the surface below the lander. The instrument is an improved version of the APXS of the Mars Pathfinder.
  • COSAC (The COmetary SAmpling and Composition) The combined gas chromatograph and time of flight mass spectrometry will perform analysis of soil samples and determine the content of volatile components.
  • Ptolemy
  • ÇIVA (Comet Nucleus Infrared and Visible Analyzer)
  • ROLIS (Rosetta Lander Imaging System)
  • CONSERT (COmet Nucleus Sounding Experiment by Radiowave Transmission). The Consert radar will perform the tomography of the nucleus by measuring electromagnetic wave propagation from Philae and the Rosetta probe throughout the comet nucleus in order to determine its internal structures and to deduce information on its composition.
  • MUPUS (MUlti-PUrpose Sensors for Surface and Sub-Surface Science)
  • ROMAP (Rosetta Lander Magnetometer and Plasma Monitor)
  • SESAME (Surface Electric Sounding and Acoustic Monitoring Experiment)
  • SD2 (The sampling, drilling and distribution subsystem)

Read more about this topic:  Philae (spacecraft)

Famous quotes containing the word instruments:

    “Water, earth, air, fire, and the other parts of this structure of mine are no more instruments of your life than instruments of your death. Why do you fear your last day? It contributes no more to your death than each of the others. The last step does not cause the fatigue, but reveals it. All days travel toward death, the last one reaches it.”
    —Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)

    “I lay my eternal curse on whomsoever shall now or at any time hereafter make schoolbooks of my works and make me hated as Shakespeare is hated. My plays were not designed as instruments of torture. All the schools that lust after them get this answer, and will never get any other.”
    —George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)

    “I rejoice that America has resisted. Three millions of people, so dead to all the feelings of liberty, as voluntarily to submit to be slaves, would have been fit instruments to make slaves of the rest.”
    —William Pitt, The Elder, Lord Chatham (1708–1778)