ROSETTA-ORBITER 67P COSIMA 3: Comet Dust Collection and Analysis Logs

Operational history data for the 72 dust-collecting substrates of the COSIMA instrument aboard the Rosetta spacecraft. The dataset, created by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, groups operations by substrate and time, covering instrument calibration and dust collection near comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. From 2014-10-23 onward, the SIMS data is noted as scientifically unusable due to an instrument effect.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the operational timeline and health of the COSIMA instrument based on the recorded history of substrate operations.
• Studying the calibration phase of the instrument based on data collected up to August 2014.
• Investigating dust collection events on specific substrates from August 2014 onward during the comet encounter phase.

Strengths

• Data is grouped by the 72 specific dust-collecting substrates, providing a detailed operational log.
• Explicitly documents a known data quality issue affecting SIMS data from 2014-10-23.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected by the COSIMA (Cometary Secondary Ion Mass Analyzer) instrument aboard the Rosetta orbiter.

Time Range

Covers operations up to at least 2014-10-23, with a focus on calibration pre-August 2014 and comet dust collection thereafter.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 17:05:19.486100; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Data collected in the vicinity of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.