Analytical appproach to the interpretation of a MUPUS-like cometary thermal probe measurements

Abstract

The MUPUS set of thermal sensors will be placed inside the penetrator to be inserted into the nucleus of comet Czurumov-Gerasimenko as a part of scientific program performed by lander experiments of the Rosetta mission. The instrument will act either as a temperature profile recorder or as a thermal conductivity probe. In the later case the sensors, in the form of thin titanium rings, will be heated and will increase their temperature at the rate depending on the thermal conductivity of the surrounding medium. The analytical description of the expected time dependence of the sensor temperature is a challenging task, since a two-dimensional heat transfer theory is necessary - a step forward as compared with a standard, one-dimensional hot rod method. We confront the result of such advanced analytical method with the results of experiments performed in different media.