The Schenck MULTIDOS DEA open frame weighbelt feeder includes an IP69K stainless-steel load cell manufactured to withstand high-pressure spray; a shaft-mounted washdown drive system;
gravity-assist head pulley scraper and internal plow that automatically clean both sides of the belt; and 316 stainless-steel product contact surfaces.
The mission will use the gravity of Earth, Venus, and Mercury to maneuver, performing the interplanetary
gravity-assist maneuver developed by Giuseppe Colombo and implemented in the Mariner 10 mission; it will also use the solar-electric propulsion technology ESA demonstrated in its SMART-1 mission.
Since its launch in 2004, Rosetta had to make three
gravity-assist flybys of Earth and one of Mars to help it on its course to its rendezvous with comet 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko.
These trajectories optimize the
gravity-assist technique used so successfully since NASA's Voyager missions to vastly reduce the acceleration needed to reach another celestial body.
Since its launch in 2004, Rosetta had to make three
gravity-assist flybys of Earth and one of Mars to help it on course to its rendezvous with the comet, which allowed it to pass by asteroids teins and Lutetia, obtaining unprecedented views and scientific data on these two objects.
Longuski, "Graphical method for
gravity-assist trajectory design," Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, vol.
Furthermore, he purposefully entangles the saga of early robotic spacecraft in a distracting, episodic account of brilliant mathematician Michael Minovitch's efforts to receive credit as "inventor" of the
gravity-assist method to speed spacecraft deeper into space.
De Pascale, "Preliminary design of multiple
gravity-assist trajectories," Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, vol.
Bolton said that even a large rocket couldn't provide enough propulsion to get the probe all the way to Jupiter, so the probe is flying by the Earth for a
gravity-assist that will provide about 70 percent of the initial boost provided by the Atlas V 551 rocket.