The document discusses the Rosetta mission, a groundbreaking space exploration initiative aimed at understanding comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It emphasizes the mission's historical significance and contributions to navigation technology and environmental understanding, paralleling historical voyages of discovery. The text also highlights the importance of knowledge in managing ancient civilizations and the evolution of geographic sciences.

1. BACK TO THE FUTURE:
Rosetta
I don't think of what I do as science fiction,
I think of it as historical reports of events that haven't happened yet!
Dr R.J. (Bob) Williams [Retired]
Cartographer
Topographic Surveyor,
Geographer & Geospatial Scientist
February 2022
Extract from presentation titled
“BACK TO THE FUTURE: OIESS2025 – Burrows – Rosetta”

2. Vision: To prototype and develop an
Oceania Infrastructure & Environmental Support System
Recalling

3. Can such a ‘paradigm shift’ be made to address 2025 vision and beyond … ?
THE ROSETTA MISSION
November 12, 2014
WELCOME TO A COMET
Photo: ESA
We've turned science fiction into science fact today.
This is a big step for human civilisation
ESA’s Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain
Our ambitious Rosetta mission has secured
another place in the history books
Warwick Holmes told ABC
from the ESA's operations centre in Darmstady, Germany.
BACK TO THE FUTURE – Ben Bova 1989
“I don't think of what I do as science fiction, I think of it as historical reports of events
that haven't happened yet”
Ben Bova# presented the Keynote Address “Welcome to Moonbase’ [2020] to the ASPRS/ACSM/AUTO-
CARTO 9 Conference, Baltimore

4. THE ROSETTA MISSION – Rosetta’s WORLD
January 20, 2014
Date: 27 March 2014 Satellite:
Rosetta
Depicts: Star field with comet 67P/
Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Photo: ESA
March 2, 2004 – Spacecraft launched from Guiana Space Centre
June 8 2011 — The spacecraft was “put asleep”
January 20, 2014 – The spacecraft “woke up” and greets the Earth with a “hello
world” message.
Rosetta now navigates by the stars using a kind of small telescope. To prevent
Rosetta from losing its way, smart software was developed to reliably recognise
constellations for navigation purposes even when there is major interference from
dust particles.
September 10, 2014 — Rosetta enters the Global Mapping Phase, orbiting 67/C-G
at an altitude of 29 km (18 mi)
"I had the ambition to not only go farther than man had gone before, but to go
as far as it was possible to go.” Cook’s Second Voyage 1774
The Endeavour was not only on a voyage of discovery. It was also a laboratory
for testing the latest theories and technologies, much as spaceships are today.
BACK TO THE FUTURE – James Cook 1768-71
Voyages of Discovery
James Cook portrait by
Nathaniel Dance, c.1775,
National Maritime
Museum, Greenwich

5. THE ROSETTA MISSION – Philae’s WORLD
November 12, 2014
As PHILAE approached Comet 67P/
Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 12 November
2014, the lander's downward-looking camera
ROLIS (ROsetta Lander Imaging System)
took images of the descent.
Francois Hollande
enjoying a 3D
presentation about the
mission at the Cite des
Sciences in Paris Credit: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/ROLIS/DLR
BACK TO THE FUTURE – RA Survey 1985
603. A more profound area of application is expected in the field of
airborne navigation systems. It will include both military and civilian
aircraft, particularly low-flying manned and unmanned weapon
systems. In all these cases, DTMs will afford real time information about
the terrain below and the effects of distant terrain on the aircraft whether it
is using terrain matching for navigation or making use of natural cover to
avoid enemy detection.
Royal Australian Survey Corps, Digital Terrain Modelling: An Overview, 15 April 1985
Mount Macedon, VIC
Elevation model produced in 1985
Manned and Unmanned Vehicles – A Big Idea!

6. THE ROSETTA MISSION – Philae’s WORLD
November 12, 2014
BACK TO THE FUTURE – RA Survey 1981
Terrain Matching Navigation
The Terrain Contour Matching (TERCOM)
guidance system provides position data by
measuring and comparing actual terrain
profiles with the digitally stored relative terrain
elevations along the mission route. TERCOM
assists with the flight navigation and target
positioning weapons.
Royal Australian Survey Corps
Future Tactical Applications of the Digital
Topographic Database
AUTOMAP Fourth Edition, December 1981
DSVY-A/DEF/MISC/5157D
USA DMA
BACK TO THE FUTURE – RA Survey 1950s-60s
Anaglyphs
UK Military Survey
The Royal Australian
Survey Corps (RASVY)
had a long time association
with UK MILSVY and used
the same equipment until
1966 when the WILD B8
stereo-plotters (right) were
introduced into service. This
analog stereo-
photogrammetric equipment
uses sophisticated optics.
During the 1950s and
1960s UK Military
Survey (MILSVY)
used the Multiplex
stereo-plotter (right).
This equipment
projects anaglyphs.

7. THE ROSETTA MISSION – Ptolemy’s WORLD
November 20, 2014
PTOLEMY is the first example of a new concept in space instrumentation, which
has been devised to tackle the analytical challenge of making in situ isotopic
measurements of solar system bodies. The instrument concept is termed
'MODULUS' which is taken to mean Methods Of Determining and Understanding
Light elements from Unequivocal Stable isotope compositions.
The scientific goal of the MODULUS concept is to understand the geochemistry of
light elements, such as hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen, by determining their
nature, distribution and stable isotopic compositions.
BACK TO THE FUTURE – Ptolemy C.150 AD
CLAUDIUS PTOLEMY was
an ancient Hellenistic
mathematician, geographer,
astronomer, and astrologer.
Ptolemy defined GEOGRAPHY as “a graphic representation of the whole known part
of the world, along with the things occurring in it”.
Ptolemy later defined Chorography as the study of its smaller parts--provinces,
regions, cities, or ports. Ptolemy implicitly would include the making of views (not
simply maps of small regions) in this category, since he claims that chorography
requires the skills of a draftsman or artist rather than those of a scientist, which are
needed for the practice of geography.
The term chorography fell out of use in the Renaissance as city views and maps
became more and more sophisticated and required a set of skills that required not
only skilled draftsmanship but also some knowledge of scientific surveying. The term
was replaced by CARTOGRAPHY.

8. THE ROSETTA MISSION – OSIRIS
January 22, 2015
Rosetta is revealing its host comet as having a remarkable
array of surface features and with many processes contributing
to its activity, painting a complex picture of its evolution.
GETTING TO KNOW ROSETTA’S COMET
The OSIRIS (Optical, Spectrocopic and Infrared Remote
Imaging System) scientific camera imaged the surface of the
comet. The scientists identified 19 regions separated by distinct
boundaries and grouped according to the type of terrain
dominant within.
BACK TO THE FUTURE – CSIRO 1970s & RASVY 1978
Terrain Pattern Maps for Planning
CSIRO TERRAIN PATTERN MAP
Digitised by Bob Williams 1978
SHOALWATER BAY AREA - QUEENSLAND
During the period December 1978 – February 1979 (then) SSGT Bob
Williams, a member of the Royal Australian Survey Corps (RASVY),
worked in collaboration with the Directorate of Engineers – Army, the
Joint Exercise Planning Staff (JEPS), and Dr Joe Walker and his staff at
CSIRO’s Division of Land Use Research to digitize terrain pattern
maps compiled by CSIRO and using software written by CSIRO’s Bruce
Cook to form the basis of Trafficability Overprints for the Shoalwater Bay
Training Map.

9. THE ROSETTA MISSION – Rosetta and Philae
Voyage of Discovery – The Search for Knowledge
The Philae obelisk is one of two
obelisks found in upper Egypt in 1815.
The inscriptions on it are in Egyptian
hieroglyphs and in ancient Greek. The
obelisk, in keeping with its bilingual
nature and the "translation" metaphor
of the Rosetta space mission, gives its
name to the mission Philae robotic
lander.
The European Space Agency's
unprecedented mission of cometary
exploration is named after the
famous 'Rosetta Stone'. This slab
of volcanic basalt - now in the
British Museum in London – was the
key to unravelling the civilisation
of ancient Egypt.
“So! The Pharaohs, the tombs, the monuments, the great civilisation who built them –
you’re not interested in them. But, the mummy’s curse you find …”
Granddaughter: “Exciting!”
Grandfather: “Ah yes! I can see that. Alright then. You shall hear all about it. But, first
we must take a trip together”.
Granddaughter: “Where will we start then?”
Grandfather: “At the source of course!”
The greatness of the Egyptian civilisation came about by the Egyptians’ ability to manage their environment and to
build their infrastructure. This required “knowledge”:
q knowledge of astronomy,
q knowledge of geometry,
q knowledge of mathematics,
q knowledge of engineering and
q knowledge of organisation.
BACK TO THE FUTURE – Knowledge!

10. SSGT Bob Williams operating a Magnavox AN/
PRR-14 portable Doppler satellite (US Navy
Navigation Satellite System – TRANSIT)
receiver – 1976
TRANSIT Doppler satellite AN/PRR-14 geodetic
receiver (Geoceiver) was a huge technological
and logistic leap, allowing geodetic quality surveys
to be established with stations independent of
each other, in any weather, any terrain, anywhere
in the world, 24 hours a day.
The Royal Australian Survey Corps (RASVY) was
equipped with six Geoceivers in 1975 as a Corps
asset and which were allocated as required to all
field survey squadrons for surveys in Australia,
Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the South
West Pacific.
Images and historical information from
Christopher Coulthard-Clark’s
Australia’s Military Mapmakers
Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 3000
ISBN 0 19 551343 6
Images and historical information from
Lawrence FitzGerald’s
Lebanon to Labuan
J.G.Holmes, Melbourne, 1980
ISBN 0 9594979
Forward by Minster of Defence Kim C. Beazley in
Desmond Ball & Ross Babbage (Eds)
Geographic Information Systems:
Defence Applications
Pergamon Press, Sydney, 2000
ISBN 0 08 034444 5
REFERENCES