The ROSETTA Lander anchoring system

A major goal of the ESA cornerstone mission ROSETTA is to land a package of scientific instruments known as the ROSETTA Lander on the nucleus of a comet. Due to the low gravity a highly reliable fixation of the ROSETTA Lander to the target comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (3rd) is essential. For that purpose a redundant Anchoring System, consisting of two pyrotechnically actuated Anchoring Harpoons and a redundant Control Electronics has been developed, built and qualified at the Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik (MPE), Garching. The pyrotechnical gas generator has been developed jointly by Pyroglobe GmbH and MPE, the procurement of the control electronics has been sub-contracted to Magson GmbH, Berlin. A study to obtain a suitable lubrication method for the commutator of a brushed DC motor has been conducted at the European Space Tribology Laboratory (ESTL; S. D. Lewis et al., 2003).