MUPUS (Rosetta-Philae mission)

ROSETTA was an international mission that was a part of the ESA’s Science Programme. The satellite was launched on March 2, 2004 and its destination was the short period comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The mission’s objectives were: to analyse the drilled samples and the surface; to sound the deep interior, plasma and magnetosphere; to study dust oduction and sedimentation; and take images at different wavelengths and with different fields of view. In order to measure the physical properties of the near surface layers of the comet, the MUPUS (penetrator and manipulator) device was developed in Poland. It was designed and manufactured by the CBK PAN. The CBK PAN had also contributed in the Virtis experiment, which aim was to study the surface and the nearest surroundings of the comet.