Philae (spacecraft) - International Contribution

International Contribution

• Italy

The Italian Space Agency has a significant role in the Philae Lander. It has provided the SD2 instrument and the Photo Voltaic Assembly. The industrial contractors are respectively Tecnospazio spA and Galileo Avionica spA.

• France

The French Space Agency together with some scientific laboratories (IAS, SA, LPG, LISA) provided the system's overall engineering, radiocommunications and battery assembly, CONSERT, CIVA and the ground segment(overall engineering and development/operation of the Scientific Operation & Navigation Centre).

• Germany

The German Space Agency(DLR) has provided the structure, thermal subsystem, flywheel, the Active Descent System(procured by DLR but made in Switzerland), ROLIS, downward-looking camera, SESAME, acoustic sounding and seismic instrument for the Philae Lander. It has also managed the project and did the level product assurance. The University of Münster built MUPUS and the University of Braunschweig the ROMAP instrument. MPAE made the payload engineering, eject mechanism, landing gear, anchoring harpoon, central computer, COSAC, APXS and other subsystems.

• Finland

The Finnish Meteorological Institute provided the Memory of the Command, Data and Management System(CDMS) and the Permittivity Probe(PP).

• Austria

The Austrian Space Research Institute developed the lander's anchor and two sensors within MUPUS, which are integrated into the anchor tips. They indicate the temperature variations and the shock acceleration.

• Hungary

The Hungarian Academy of Sciences designed, assembled and tested the Power Conditioning and Distribution Subsystem(PSS). PSS assures that the power coming from the batteries and solar arrays are properly handled, controls battery charging and manages the onboard power distribution.

• United Kingdom

The Open University and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory(RAL) have developed PTOLEMY. RAL has also constructed the blankets that keep the lander warm throughout its mission. Surrey Satellites Technology Ltd.(SSTL) constructed the momentum wheel for the lander. It stabilises the module during the descent and landing phases.

• Ireland

Space Technology Ireland Ltd. has designed, constructed and tested the Electrical Support System Processor Unit(ESS) for the Rosetta mission. ESS stores, transmits and provides decoding for the command streams passing from the spacecraft to the lander and handles the data streams coming back from the scientific experiments on the lander to the spacecraft.