Rosetta

ESA

Agency

ESA

Country

🇪🇺 Europe

Launched

2004-03-02

Flyby date

2007-02-25

Closest approach

~250 km

Mass

~2,900 kg (with propellant at launch)

Key Findings

1.Gravity-assist manoeuvre to gain energy en route to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
2.OSIRIS wide-angle and narrow-angle cameras captured Mars surface images during the flyby
3.Plasma instruments measured the Mars plasma environment and interaction with the solar wind
4.ALICE ultraviolet spectrograph mapped hydrogen and oxygen in the Martian upper atmosphere
5.Flyby demonstrated ESA's deep-space multi-body gravity-assist mission capability

Mission Outcome

Rosetta used Mars for a gravity-assist on February 25, 2007, picking up orbital energy for its eventual rendezvous with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014. During the close approach, several instruments operated in Mars-observation mode, returning useful plasma environment and upper-atmosphere UV data as a secondary science product. The manoeuvre is considered a textbook example of multi-body interplanetary navigation.