Measuring the permittivity of the surface of the Churyumov-Gerasimenko nucleus: the PP-SESAME experiment on board the Philae/ROSETTA lander

Anthony Lethuillier (1) , Alice Le Gall (1) , Michel Hamelin (1) , Valérie Ciarletti (1) , Sylvain Caujolle-Bert (2) , W. Schmidt (3) , G. Grard (4)

1 PLANETO - LATMOS
2 LATMOS - Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales
3 FMI - Finnish Meteorological Institute
4 ESTEC - European Space Research and Technology Centre

The Permittivity Probe (PP-SESAME) on-board the Philae Lander of the ROSETTA mission will de- termine the complex permittivity of the surface of the Churyumov-Gerasimenko nucleus and monitor its variations with time. Doing so, it will provide unique insight into the composition and activity of the comet. In this paper, we present the method we have devel- oped to analyze PP-SESAME active measurements. This method will be tested in May 2014 with a replica of the instrument in the giant ice cave system of Dachstein, in Austria.

Domaines: Planétologie et astrophysique de la terre [astro-ph.EP]; Planétologie et astrophysique de la terre [astro-ph.EP]

Anthony Lethuillier, Alice Le Gall, Michel Hamelin, Valérie Ciarletti, Sylvain Caujolle-Bert, et al.. Measuring the permittivity of the surface of the Churyumov-Gerasimenko nucleus: the PP-SESAME experiment on board the Philae/ROSETTA lander. European Planetary Science Congress 2014, Sep 2014, Cascais, Portugal. pp.EPSC2014-453. ⟨hal-01070460⟩