NSSDCA ID: 2004-006A-15
Mission Name: RosettaThe Ion Composition Analyser (ICA) is designed to determine the energy and direction of solar wind and cometary ions, and separate ion species by measuring the charge to mass ratio. The ICA is part of the Rosetta Plasma Consortium (RPC) which consists of four additional instruments: the Langmuir Probe Instrument (LAP), the Ion and Electron Sensor (IES), the Fluxgate Magnetometer (MAG), and the Mutual Impedance Probe (MIP). The scientific objectives of the RPC instruments are to study inner coma structure, dynamics, and aeronomy, characterize the development of cometary activity and the formation and evolution of plasma tail, and investigate solar-wind and asteroid interaction.
The ICA is mounted on the top (comet-facing) side of the orbiter. It consists of an electrostatic entrance angle system, an electrostatic tophat analyzer, and a cylindrical momentum analyzer. The tophat uses the toroidal analyzer approach and has a 360 degree field of view. The momentum analyzer is a mass/charge time-of-flight velocity analyzer based on permanent magnets. The ICA provides the azimuth angle and mass per charge of incident ions in a 16 (angle) vs 32 (mass) array. The mass range is 1 to approximately 10^12 amu, which includes submicron sized dusty plasma particles. Energy/charge is measured at 7% resolution from 1 eV/q to 40 eV/q. A 2D distribution is obtained in 4 s and a 3D distribution in 64 s. Onboard control is provided by the Plasma Interface Unit (PIU), a common interface to the spacecraft for the RPC experiments.
Mass: 2.02 kg
Power (avg): 4.2 W
Questions and comments about this experiment can be directed to: Dr. David R. Williams
Name | Role | Original Affiliation | |
---|---|---|---|
Dr. Hans Nilsson | Principal Investigator | Swedish Institute for Space Physics | hans.nilsson@irf.se |
RPC Home Page (Rosetta Plasma Consortium)