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The income gap is the negative margin between earned income and operating expenses: this is the main financial concern for not-for-profit entities (both public sector and nongovernmental organizations). Despite this, all over the world these entities are forced to use the standard profit-centered income statements format, with its focus on net income generation (the bottom line). This paper proposes an income statement format that uses the income gap to understand/discuss/present the financial viability of a not-for-profit entity in the arts sector, specifically a museum. We apply the framework to the British Museum’s income statements from 1999–2000 to 2018–2019. This allows us to analyze institutional narratives in the context of the evolution of the museum’s financial viability over two decades, and to assess the performance of the museum’s neoliberal reform agenda from the end of the 1990s. Enlarging the perspective, ad hoc adaptations of the framework can allow a better understanding of the financial viability of not-for-profit organizations, in the arts sector and possibly more broadly in public services and not-for-profit sector.

PurposeThe monetary valuation of cultural heritage of a selection of 16 major public, not-for-profit Australian cultural institutions is examined over a period of almost three decades (1992–2019) to understand how they have responded to the paradoxical tensions of heritage valuation for financial reporting purposes.Design/methodology/approachAccounting for cultural heritage is an intrinsically paradoxical practice; it involves a conflict of two opposite ways of attributing value: the traditional accounting and the heritage professionals (or curatorial) approaches. In analysing the annual reports and other documentary sources through qualitative content analysis, the study explores how different actors responded to the conceptual and technical contradictions posed by the monetary valuation of “heritage assets”, the accounting phraseology of accounting standards.FindingsFour phases emerge from the analysis undertaken of the empirical material, each characterised by a distinctive nature of the paradox, the institutional responses discerned and the outcomes. Although a persisting heterogeneity in the practice of accounting for cultural heritage is evident, responses by cultural institutions are shown to have minimised, so far, the negative impacts of monetary valuation in terms of commercialisation of deaccessioning decisions and distorted accountability.Originality/valueIn applying the theoretical lens of paradox theory in the context of the financial reporting of heritage, as assets, the study enhances an understanding of the challenges and responses by major public cultural institutions in a country that has led this development globally, providing insights to accounting standard setters arising from the accounting practices observed.

Launched in October 2018, the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission is set to arrive at Mercury in late 2025. The modular S/C consists of two scientific Mercury orbiters and a cruise module with electric propulsion to support the 7-years cruise phase with planetary flybys at Earth (1x), Venus (2x) and Mercury (6x). Flight operations of the composite spacecraft are performed by ESOC Darmstadt, Germany. In the first year of flight, extensive near-Earth commissioning operations as well as two electric propulsion thrust arcs have taken place, with the S/C in excellent shape and well on its way to Mercury. Starting with a mission overview, the paper will present operations in the first year of flight, the current status of BepiColombo, as well as providing an outlook on upcoming activities and events.

The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board of the International Federation of Accountants issued exposure draft ED78 Property Plant and Equipment in April 2021. It proposes valuing ‘heritage items’ for recognition as ‘heritage assets’ in statements of financial position. This proposed requirement for global application casts the spotlight on a highly controversial topic in regulated financial reporting. The monetary valuation of cultural, heritage and scientific collections of public not‐for‐profit museums, art galleries and similar repositories has been subject to considerable discussion and debate for the past three decades. Our purpose is to critically examine this perennial financial reporting controversary, in the context of the three conceptions of accounting: accounting as technical practice, social practice and moral practice as articulated in the definition of accounting proposed by Carnegie et al. (2021a, 2021b) for discussion, debate and potential adoption in the accounting profession, including by accounting standard setters in all sectors. This article is intended to challenge accounting to enhanced self‐awareness in reaching its full potential.

The debate on agencification in the public sector has traditionally overlooked the influence of space on how autonomy unfolds in practice. Starting with the contention that organizing and space are interweaved, the study analyses the early stages of the agencification process of three Italian museums and reveals that space is a constraint to, and an enabler of, de facto autonomy for newly created entities. Space is a constraint when spatial changes are temporally misaligned with the agencification process, including directorship cycles. On the other hand, space enables de facto autonomy, as it is purposely modified to accommodate new demands and needs by newly appointed managers. The paper maintains that policy makers and site managers should seriously consider space when dealing with agencification reforms, paying attention to the revenue and cost implications of spatial solutions, and the areas of responsibility concerning buildings and objects.

The paper focuses on the effect of business model and governance changes on conservation and access outcomes in three heritage sites in Poland: Ksiaz Castle, the Shrine of Our Lady of Grace Abbey and the Jelenia Gora Valley historic palaces. It argues that the interplay between business model and governance led by relevant political, administrative and economic changes has an impact on which historic buildings are conserved for future generations, in what form, and with which functions. Findings from the case studies allow us to design three ideal business models for the management of heritage sites. The paper also explores implications for management research regarding business model and public sector change.

International audience; PURPOSE. To describe the molecular epidemiology of nonsyndromic retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and Usher syndrome (US) in Italian patients. METHODS. A total of 591 probands (315 with family history and 276 sporadics) were analyzed. For 155 of them, we performed a family segregation study, considering a total of 382 relatives. Probands were analyzed by a customized multigene panel approach. Sanger sequencing was used to validate all genetic variants and to perform family segregation studies. Copy number variants of selected genes were analyzed by multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification. Four patients who tested negative to targeted next-generation sequencing analysis underwent clinical exome sequencing.RESULTS. The mean diagnostic yield of molecular testing among patients with a family history of retinal disorders was 55.2% while the diagnostic yield including sporadic cases was 37.4%. We found 468 potentially pathogenic variants, 147 of which were unpublished, in 308 probands and 66 relatives. Mean ages of onset of the different classes of RP were autosomal dominant RP, 19.3 ± 12.6 years; autosomal recessive RP, 23.2 ± 16.6 years; X-linked RP, 13.9 ± 9.9 years; and Usher syndrome, 18.9 ± 9.5 years. We reported potential new genotype-phenotype correlations in three probands, two revealed by TruSight One testing. All three probands showed isolated RP caused by biallelic variants in genes usually associated with syndromes such as PERCHING and Senior-Loken or with retinal dystrophy, iris coloboma, and comedogenic acne syndrome.CONCLUSIONS. This is the largest molecular study of Italian patients with RP in the literature, thus reflecting the epidemiology of the disease in Italy with reasonable accuracy.

The article presents preliminary findings from a family survey about children’s experiences during the COVID-19 lockdown, which was administered through the pediatric network SICuPP (Italian Society of Primary Care Pediatricians – Lombardy) in Northern Italy. The study involved 3443 parents with children aged from 1 to 5 years and from 6 to 10 years living in Lombardy region, the earliest and most severely affected by the COVID-19 emergency. All participants completed an online questionnaire and provided informed consent. Respondents generally displayed confidence and a sense of self-efficacy in relation to how they had coped with the COVID-19 emergency, despite the many difficulties encountered during the lockdown. They reported having observed some unexpected improvements and resources (e.g. parent/child and sibling relationships, adaptiveness and autonomy on the part of children). Parent-to-parent solidarity was commonly reported, although a small percentage of parents had experienced a greater sense of isolation and anxiety. Finally, the study indicated ‘key areas of vulnerability’ (concerning, for example, eating, rules, sleeping, use of technological devices, fears …) that should be monitored in future by strengthening the territorial network linking families, educational services, and health services.

The article aims to explore ways of theorizing in accounting history research. The article draws on findings originating from a semi-automated text analysis by means of topic modelling of 1,300 accounting history papers published between 1996 and 2015 across six journals most relevant to the discipline. Findings show the presence of a whole range of ways of theorizing at different levels of abstraction (from narrating to conceptualizing to theorizing settings to grand theorizing). Different ways of theorizing tend to be associated not only with specific research objects but also with specific journal types. Overall, both narrating and grand theorizing are relatively decreasing in favour of mid-range theorizing approaches, which seem to be on the rise.

The literature on university museums abounds with accounts of new initiatives to reposition these institutions by opening them up to the general public as they move away from core of university activities like teaching and research. However, what is seldom analyzed is the long-term impact of such initiatives, and whether they survive the initial phases and live up to expectations. The study reports on the administrative history of the museums and collections of the University of Bologna across a continuous period of more than four decades, starting in the late 1970s and ending in 2015. Using a holistic framework, attention is addressed to institutional changes, trends in human and financial resources management, activities and visitors' profiles across an extended period. The paper highlights the difficulties experienced in consistently supporting the vision developed in the late 1970s, and presents some proposals for change.

Texts are among the most relevant data sources for social scientists, and traditionally researchers adopt qualitative methods for dealing with them. Yet, new computer aided techniques offer promising methodological avenues for scholars, which can now deal with big corpora of texts. One of the techniques that recently gained more relevance is Topic Modelling, which permits extracting bag of words which co-occur often in texts. While Topic Modelling was fruitfully used in sociology and management, existing software for performing it requires coding skills, and are not user friendly. In this paper we present MITAO, a new graphic-based, user friendly, open source software for performing topic modelling and other analysis on textual data.

Drawing on the concept of an accountability web, this paper analyses the two-year long extraordinary administration of the archaeological site at Pompeii, where the Italian Prime Minister appointed a special Commissioner to deal with the alleged decay of the site in July 2008. Findings shed light on critical issues related to the appointment of ‘loyal experts’ in terms of strong personalisation, short-term thinking, and the influence of the media in the administration of public services. Moreover, the paper introduces patronage accountability as a distinct accountability dimension that is characterised by a hierarchical and informal nature, and which cannot be accessed by those who are not part of the transaction. We add to the literature by identifying patronage accountability as a separate accountability dimension that conflicts with more common ones, and examine the implications of this practice for public administration.

none 3 no This article analyses all articles published in Accounting History using a topic modeling technique. Previous studies focus on the content of accounting history, but not how the field has evolved. The article complements prior assessments of the research published in Accounting History by providing measures of the relative prevalence of research areas and their evolution over time. The analysis offers insights into accounting history by refining previous categorisations, uncovering overlooked topic areas and substantiating trends, such as the demise of interest in the technical core of accounting in favour of more variegated and fragmented approaches. The findings are discussed in light of the claimed pluralisation of methodological and theoretical approaches in this field. mixed Ferri, Paolo; Lusiani, Maria; Pareschi, Luca Ferri, Paolo; Lusiani, Maria; Pareschi, Luca

The International Rosetta Mission was launched on 2nd March 2004 on its 10 year journey to rendezvous with comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta performed comet orbit insertion on the 6th of August 2014, after which it characterised the nucleus and orbited it at altitudes as low as a few kilometres. In November 2014 Rosetta delivered the lander Philae to perform the first soft landing ever on the surface of a comet. After this critical operation, Rosetta began the escort phase of the comet in its journey in the Solar System heading to the perihelion, reached in August 2015. Originally foreseen till the end of 2015, the mission was extended for another nine months to follow the comet on its outbound arc of the orbit. In view of the acquired experience and of the approaching end of mission the spacecraft was flown at much closer distances from the nucleus so that the scientific instruments had the chance to perform unique measurements. Following this phase of very close orbits, on the 30th of September 2016 Rosetta was set on a collision course trajectory with the comet to terminate the mission with a controlled impact. This paper describes the details of the extended mission phase and the issues encountered during these months. It also includes the changes implemented on the spacecraft and in the operations concept to optimise the remaining mission time. The paper also includes the lessons learned from this unique and complex mission phase.

After a brief introduction pointing up the technological origins of humankind, in the main body of this paper the authors bring three different levels of analysis to bear on 0-10-year-old children's appropriation of touchscreen technology (in the home, during informal exchanges with peers, and at preschool and primary school). First, they review the most recent literature on the topic, showing that the age of first access to this kind of technology has dropped significantly; this suggests the need to provide a critical education in technology from the early childhood education and preschool stages onwards. Indeed, the data and evidence that is accumulating from home and educational contexts prompts the authors – in the second part of the paper – to revisit Sherry Turkle's classical three-phase model (informed by the work of Papert and Piaget) of how children encounter and relate to “new” digital technologies. Furthermore, the uses that children make of digital devices and the relative cognitive patterns need to be interpreted in light of the epistemological requirements that have driven both the development of these technologies and changes in the dynamics of how they are appropriated. All these levels of analysis are prerequisite to designing educational models that are truly enhanced by the deployment of touchscreen technology. Finally, in the third section of the paper, the authors outline the key principles of their own proposed model – the Bayesian Classroom – based on the theoretical considerations previously outlined.

The International Rosetta Mission was launched on 2nd March 2004 on its 10 year journey to rendezvous with comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta performed comet orbit insertion on the 6th of August 2014, after which it characterised the nucleus and orbited it at altitudes as low as a few kilometres. In November 2014 Rosetta delivered the lander Philae to perform the first soft landing ever on the surface of a comet. The critical landing operations have been conducted with remarkable accuracy and will constitute one of the most important achievements in the history of spaceflight. After this critical operation, Rosetta began the escort phase of the comet in its journey in the Solar System heading to the perihelion, reached in August 2015. Throughout this period, the comet environment kept changing with increasing gas and dust emissions. A first phase of bound orbits was followed by a sequence of complex flyby segments which allowed the scientific instruments to perform in depth investigation of the comet environment and nucleus. The unpredictable nature of the comet activity forced the mission control team to implement unplanned changes to the flight plan prepared for this mission phase and to plan the whole mission in a more dynamic way than originally conceived. This paper describes the details of the landing operations and of the main comet escort phase. It also includes the mission status as achieved after perihelion and the findings about the evolution of the comet and its environment from a mission operations point of view. The lessons learned from this unique and complex operations phase and the plans for the next mission phases, which include a mission extension into 2016, are also described.

The paper discusses the role of hope in the construction of an accounting technology to realize a program, by looking at a process of choosing non-financial indicators in an effort to achieve healthier workplaces. By exploring the literature dealing with the concept of hope and by drawing on the debate on the relationship between accounting and action, we highlight the features of three hope-related concepts (hopelessness, naïve hope, and reflective hope). We also highlight how these concepts relate to different areas of uncertainty (validity, accuracy, and relevance) in the development of accounting technologies. Evidence collected through particiapant observation of a team involved in the construction of indicators offers empirical material to investigate the interplay between hopelessness, naïve hope, and reflective hope in relation to uncertainties concerning the link between accounting and action. Beyond analyzing how team members move from a naïve to a reflective hope in making the accounting–action link, the paper shows that among practitioners it is accepted that unintended consequences constitute the rule rather than the exception in the accounting–action link.

The International Rosetta Mission was launched on 2nd March 2004 on its 10 year journey to comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko and has reached it early August 2014; it will now orbit it for about 1.5 years down to distances of a few kilometres and has delivered the Lander Philae onto its surface. Following the exit in January 2014 from a 2.5 years hibernation period, necessary due to the large heliocentric distances reached by the solar-powered spacecraft, which prevented full operation of the on-board electrical systems, Rosetta conducted the delicate approach phase during which it slowly discovered its unexpected irregular shape. The spacecraft is now flying in close proximity of the comet and has begun its main science phase. The comet has been characterised to the level necessary to perform a proper orbit insertion and proceed with the global mapping and close observation phases. During this phase the landing site for Philae has been selected with all operations focusing on this extremely delicate and risky mission phase. The mission has been conducted according to plan and the planning and operations concepts defined have revealed to be adequate for the environment encountered during the early comet phases. The performance of the spacecraft and of the whole operations teams have been very good; all the tools and processes developed to characterise and model the environment revealed to be adequate and provided results that are fully in line with the needs. This paper describes the flight operations conducted till November 2014, the results and the performance of the mission from an operations point of view, and some of the details of the landing phase. Finally it also addresses the lessons learned that can be drawn after this initial phase of comet operations.

Background\ud To evaluate functional visual parameters using photocromic and selective blue-violet light filtering spectacle lenses in patients affected by central or peripheral scotoma due to retinal diseases.\ud \ud Sixty patients were enrolled in this study: 30 patients affected by central scotoma, group 1, and 30 affected by peripheral scotoma, group 2.\ud \ud Black on White Best Corrected Visual Acuity (BW-BCVA), White on Black Best Corrected Visual Acuity (WB-BCVA), Mars Contrast Sensitivity (CS) and a Glare Test (GT) were performed to all patients.\ud \ud Test results with blue-violet filter, a short-pass yellow filter and with no filters were compared.\ud \ud Results\ud All scores from test results increased significantly with blue-violet filters for all patients.\ud \ud The mean BW-BCVA increased from 0.30 ± 0.20 to 0.36 ± 0.21 decimals in group 1 and from 0.44 ± 0.22 to 0.51 ± 0.23 decimals in group 2 (Mean ± SD, p < 0.0001 in both cases).\ud \ud The mean WB-BCVA increased from 0.31 ± 0.19 to 0.38 ± 0.23 decimals in group 1 and from 0.46 ± 0.20 to 0.56 ± 0.22 decimals in group 2 (Mean ± SD, p < 0.0001 in both cases).\ud \ud The letter count for the CS test increased from 26.7 ± 7.9 to 30.06 ± 7.8 in group 1 (Mean ± SD, p = 0.0005) and from 31.5 ± 7.6 to 33.72 ± 7.3 in group 2 (Mean ± SD, p = 0.031).\ud \ud GT was significantly reduced: the letter count increased from 20.93 ± 5.42 to 22.82 ± 4.93 in group 1 (Mean ± SD, p < 0.0001) and from 24.15 ± 5.5 to 25.97 ± 4.7 in group 2 (Mean ± SD, p < 0.0001).\ud \ud Higher scores were recorded with the Blue filter compared to Yellow filter in all tests (p < 0.05).\ud \ud No significant differences in any test results could be detected between the Yellow filter and the No filter condition.\ud \ud Conclusions\ud The use of a combination of photocromic lens with a selective blue-violet light filter showed functional benefit in all evaluated patients.

PurposeTo study the correlation of the local ganglion cell layer-inner plexiform layer (GCL-IPL) thickness with corresponding retinal sensitivity as studied with microperimetry in patients with Type 2 diabetes and no signs of diabetic retinopathy.Patients and methodsWe analyzed 35 healthy subjects (68 eyes) and 26 Type 2 diabetic patients (48 eyes) with no signs of diabetic retinopathy. We tested best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), monocular and binocular constrast sensitivity (CS, Pelli - Robson chart) and retinal sensitivity with microperimetry, and acquired dense macular SD-OCT scans. We then studied the correlation between local GCL-IPL thickness and local sensitivity.ResultsMean BCVA was 1.09 (±1.03) decimals in diabetic subjects and 1.02 (±0.15) decimals in healthy subjects. Only binocular CS was significantly higher in healthy subjects (1.18±0.42 for healthy subjects, 1.62±0.63 for diabetic subjects). In both local and global analysis we observed higher GCL-IPL thickness and higher sensitivity in normal compared with diabetic subjects, but no difference reached significance (p0.05). Using a mixed multivariate linear model, we found a significant correlation between retinal sensitivity and the correspondent GCL-IPL thickness in diabetic subjects (0.022±0.006 dB/μm, p=0.0007) but not in healthy subjects (-0.002±0.006 dB/μm, p=0.77).Conclusiondespite close similarities between the two groups, we found a significant difference in the structure-function relationship in diabetic subjects without diabetic retinopathy, suggesting that diabetes might act as an additional effect in the normal deterioration of the visual function related to the inner retina.

This chapter investigates and critically reflects on highlights and blind spots in site management research. The analysis is based on a textual analysis of the case studies included in this book. Findings suggest the presence of three distinct, although overlapping, site management discourses: participation of local communities, development, and administrative complexity. Starting from this observation, the chapter tries to deepen each of these discourses, underlining the need to unpack the concept of participation, to improve existing discussions on heritage and development, and to reconsider the role of plans in dealing with administrative complexity. The chapter then moves to blind spots in site management, pinpointing human resources, financial resources, and management by numbers as areas that need further attention in the debate.

In the present paper, we investigate the Herculaneum Conservation Project (HCP), a partnership agreement between one public and two non-profit actors aimed at improving the conservation of the archeological site of Herculaneum. The study is motivated by different elements of interests. First, although HCP has been defined by UNESCO as a significant case study for private–public partnership (PPP) in the cultural heritage sector, its financial and organizational aspects are still under-investigated. Second, and quite paradoxically, an analysis of HCP through the lenses of PPP literature reveals its distinctive nature—i.e. more a borderline case than a typical example of PPP. Third, the presence of a similar archeological site nearby Herculaneum—i.e. Pompeii, also defined as a Herculaneum sister city—allows a thorough assessment of the benefit of the partnership scheme in a counterfactual logic. Through the study, we complement the current debate on partnerships in the heritage field, we report on an atypical experience of partnership, and we problematize the rationale of this governance solution within the Italian public sector.

Over the last 20 years, the use of automated and semi-automated techniques for extracting meanings from text have been widely debated in the social sciences. Automated and semi-automated techniques can be employed in all research phases: data collection (e.g. scraping), data cleaning (e.g. lemmatization of words), analysis (e.g. Named Entity Recognition, Part-of-speech Tagging, Topic Modeling, Keyword Analysis, Semantic Network Analysis, Sentiment Analysis), and visualization. Far from forcing epistemological choices, these techniques can be inductively used to deal with big corpora of data, impossible to work with for a human being. The debate produced great expectations, but substantive research results and the development of actual user friendly tools are still relatively scarce. Social researchers usually lack the technical skills to develop and integrate new research tools as instruments able to radically change the way the research is devised and conducted. Computer scientists, on the other hand, often lack regular opportunities to interact with social scientists in ways that would enable greater understanding and more widespread use to be derived from the introduction of new tools. Moreover, in social and organizational sciences, different researchers use different techniques, but both a broader reflection on the advantages and disadvantages of each technique, and an integration/comparison of different tools, are lacking. A critical review of how these techniques are used in social sciences is a valuable and welcome contribution that would enable researchers working in these areas to disentangle the technicalities of these numerous and diverse techniques and showcase the research approaches they are used for. This call for papers follows an initial stream of research developed by the CATARSI project at the University of Bologna. CATARSI (Comprensione Automatica di Testi e ARticoli nelle scienze Sociali e Informatiche – automatic understanding of texts and articles in social sciences and computer sciences) aims at tackling the interface between social sciences and information science and improving both the knowledge and the development of computer-based techniques for analyzing texts and extracting meanings. The issue tackled by CATARSI, thus, is cultural and practical, and its results will impact both on information science, which deals more with ontological aspects, and on the social sciences, which stand to benefit from the use of new instruments to improve the way knowledge is analyzed and created. This Call for Papers (CfP) aims thus at collecting contributions able to shed light on the current use of semi-automatic and computer-aided techniques for understanding texts and extracting meanings from them, especially within the social sciences. Topics include, but are not limited to: application of one or more semi-automated techniques to organizational studies; critical reviews on how semi-automated techniques are used to elicit meanings from texts in organization science; comparison of qualitative and computer-aided techniques in conducting research; analysis of the ways different techniques are used to grasp meaning from texts; cross-field and interdisciplinary applications of automatic analysis techniques; description of new tools and systems for the use and application of these methods; critical reviews on the evolution of automatic reading within social and organization science. We welcome different theoretical and empirical methodologies. Qualitative, quantitative, and experimental methodologies are welcome. Full paper submission deadline: 31st October 2019

L’oggetto della presente volume è di indagare gli obiettivi, le modalità di azione e i risultati dell’intervento che viene messo in atto nel settore culturale italiano nei casi di presunta impossibilità o incapacità di azione da parte dell’amministrazione pubblica ordinaria. Con il termine commissariamento si intende infatti una modalità di gestione temporalmente limitata, caratterizzata da un processo decisionale centralizzato e discrezionale e finalizzata alla risoluzione di una situazione definita come emergenziale o critica. Nello studio non si guarda tanto all’agenda politica che favorisce il diffondersi del fenomeno del commissariamento (nel tempo si nota peraltro una tendenza “trasversale” all’utilizzo di tale modalità di governo) né agli aspetti più strettamente giornalistici della vicenda (si pensi allo scandalo che ha coinvolto la Protezione Civile dal marzo 2010), quanto piuttosto alle condizioni amministrative che ne consentono l’utilizzo, che ne plasmano le prerogative e che ne determinano i risultati. Questo porterà a riflettere in un secondo momento sul ruolo che nozioni come quella di performance, accountability e responsabilizzazione hanno all’interno dell’amministrazione pubblica italiana in particolar modo alla luce delle riforme ispirate al New Public Management (NPM) introdotte dagli anni ’90.

The International Rosetta Mission was launched on 2nd March 2004 on its 10 years journey to comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Rosetta will reach the comet in 2014, orbit it for about 1.5 years down to distances of a few kilometres and deliver the Lander Philae onto its surface. Following the fly-by of Asteroid (21-)Lutetia in 2010, Rosetta continued its travel towards the planned comet encounter in 2014. In this phase Rosetta became the solar-powered spacecraft that reached the largest Sun distances in history of spaceflight, up to an aphelion at 5.3 AU in October 2012. At distances above 4.5 AU the spacecraft's solar generator power is not sufficient to keep all spacecraft systems active. Therefore in June 2011 the spacecraft was spun up to provide gyroscopic stabilisation, and most of its on-board units, including those used for attitude control and communications, were switched off. Over this “hibernation” phase of about 2.5 years the spacecraft will keep a minimum of autonomy active to ensure maintenance of safe thermal conditions. After Lutetia fly-by, flight controllers had to tackle two anomalies that had significant impacts on the mission operations. A leak in the reaction control subsystem was confirmed and led to the re-definition of the operational strategy to perform the comet rendezvous manoeuvres planned for 2011 and 2014. Anomalous jumps detected in the estimated friction torque of two of the four reaction wheels used for attitude control forced the rapid adoption of measures to slow down the wheels degradation. This included in-flight re-lubrication activities and changes in the wheels operational speed regime. Once the troubleshooting of the two anomalies was completed, and the related operational scenarios were implemented, the first large (790 m/s) comet rendezvous manoeuvre was executed, split into several long burns in January and February 2011. The second burn was unexpectedly interrupted due to the anomalous behaviour of two thrusters, causing attitude off-pointing. Flight controllers modified the thrusters operation parameters in the on-board software and managed to re-start the sequence of burns and successfully complete the manoeuvre. After the manoeuvre, preparation for the critical spin-up and hibernation entry activities, planned for June 2011, began. This paper presents the activities carried out on Rosetta in the final year before hibernation entry. The major anomalies and the related troubleshooting and workaround solutions are detailed. Lessons learned from the operation of the first spacecraft operating with solar power at Jupiter-like distances from the Sun are presented and discussed.

The International Rosetta Mission, cornerstone of the European Space Agency Scientific Programme, was launched on 2nd March 2004 to its 10 years journey to comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Rosetta will reach the comet in summer 2014, orbit it for about 1.5 years down to distances of a few Kilometres and deliver the Lander Philae onto its surface. After its successful asteroid fly-by in September 2008, Rosetta came back to Earth, for the final gravity acceleration towards its longest heliocentric orbit, up to a distance of 5.3 AU. It is during this phase that Rosetta crossed for the second time the main asteroids belt and performed a close encounter with asteroid (21)Lutetia on the 10th of July 2010 at a distance of ca. 3160 km and a relative velocity of 15 km/s. The payload complement of the spacecraft was activated to perform highly valuable scientific observations. The approach phase to the celestial body required a careful and accurate optical navigation campaign that will prove to be useful also for the comet approach phase. The experience gained with first asteroid flyby in 2008 was fed back into the operations definition and preparation for this highly critical phase; this concerns in particular the operations of the navigation camera for the close-loop autonomous asteroid tracking and of the main scientific camera for high resolution imaging. It was shortly after the flyby that Rosetta became the solar-powered spacecraft to have flown furthest from the Sun (>2.72 AU). This paper presents the activities carried out and planned for the definition, preparation and implementation of the asteroid flyby mission operations, including the test campaign conducted to improve the performance of the spacecraft and payload compared to the previous flyby. The results of the flyby itself are presented, with the operations implemented, the achieved performance and the lessons learned.