The Comet Interceptor Mission
- Creators
- Jones, Geraint
- Snodgrass, Colin
- Tubiana, Cecilia
- Küppers, Michael
- Kawakita, Hideyo
- Lara, Luisa
- Agarwal, Jessica
- André, Nicolas
- Attree, Nicholas
- Auster, Uli
- Bagnulo, Stefano
- Bannister, Michele
- Beth, Arnaud
- Bowles, Neil
- Coates, Andrew
- Colangeli, Luigi
- Corral van Damme, Carlos
- da Deppo, Vania
- de Keyser, Johan
- Della Corte, Vincenzo
- Edberg, Niklas
- El-Maarry, Mohamed Ramy
- Faggi, Sara
- Fulle, Marco
- Funase, Ryu
- Galand, Marina
- Goetz, Charlotte
- Groussin, Olivier
- Guilbert-Lepoutre, Aurélie
- Henri, Pierre
- Kasahara, Satoshi
- Kereszturi, Akos
- Kidger, Mark
- Knight, Matthew
- Kokotanekova, Rosita
- Kolmasova, Ivana
- Kossacki, Konrad
- Kührt, Ekkehard
- Kwon, Yuna
- La Forgia, Fiorangela
- Levasseur-Regourd, Anny Chantal
- Lippi, Manuela
- Longobardo, Andrea
- Marschall, Raphael
- Morawski, Marek
- Muñoz, Olga
- Näsilä, Antti
- Nilsson, Hans
- Opitom, Cyrielle
- Pajusalu, Mihkel
- Pommerol, Antoine
- Prech, Lubomir
- Rando, Nicola
- Ratti, Francesco
- Rothkaehl, Hanna
- Rotundi, Alessandra
- Rubin, Martin
- Sakatani, Naoya
- Sánchez, Joan Pau
- Simon Wedlund, Cyril
- Stankov, Anamarija
- Thomas, Nicolas
- Toth, Imre
- Villanueva, Geronimo
- Vincent, Jean-Baptiste
- Volwerk, Martin
- Wurz, Peter
- Wielders, Arno
- Yoshioka, Kazuo
- Aleksiejuk, Konrad
- Alvarez, Fernando
- Amoros, Carine
- Aslam, Shahid
- Atamaniuk, Barbara
- Baran, Jędrzej
- Barciński, Tomasz
- Beck, Thomas
- Behnke, Thomas
- Berglund, Martin
- Bertini, Ivano
- Bieda, Marcin
- Binczyk, Piotr
- Busch, Martin-Diego
- Cacovean, Andrei
- Capria, Maria Teresa
- Carr, Chris
- Castro Marín, José María
- Ceriotti, Matteo
- Chioetto, Paolo
- Chuchra-Konrad, Agata
- Cocola, Lorenzo
- Colin, Fabrice
- Crews, Chiaki
- Cripps, Victoria
- Cupido, Emanuele
- Dassatti, Alberto
- Davidsson, Björn
- de Roche, Thierry
- Deca, Jan
- del Togno, Simone
- Dhooghe, Frederik
- Donaldson Hanna, Kerri
- Eriksson, Anders
- Fedorov, Andrey
- Fernández-Valenzuela, Estela
- Ferretti, Stefano
- Floriot, Johan
- Frassetto, Fabio
- Fredriksson, Jesper
- Garnier, Philippe
- Gaweł, Dorota
- Génot, Vincent
- Gerber, Thomas
- Glassmeier, Karl-Heinz
- Granvik, Mikael
- Grison, Benjamin
- Gunell, Herbert
- Hachemi, Tedjani
- Hagen, Christian
- Hajra, Rajkumar
- Harada, Yuki
- Hasiba, Johann
- Haslebacher, Nico
- Herranz de la Revilla, Miguel Luis
- Hestroffer, Daniel
- Hewagama, Tilak
- Holt, Carrie
- Hviid, Stubbe
- Iakubivskyi, Iaroslav
- Inno, Laura
- Irwin, Patrick
- Ivanovski, Stavro
- Jansky, Jiri
- Jernej, Irmgard
- Jeszenszky, Harald
- Jimenéz, Jaime
- Jorda, Laurent
- Kama, Mihkel
- Kameda, Shingo
- Kelley, Michael
- Klepacki, Kamil
- Kohout, Tomáš
- Kojima, Hirotsugu
- Kowalski, Tomasz
- Kuwabara, Masaki
- Ladno, Michal
- Laky, Gunter
- Lammer, Helmut
- Lan, Radek
- Lavraud, Benoit
- Lazzarin, Monica
- Le Duff, Olivier
- Lee, Qiu-Mei
- Lesniak, Cezary
- Lewis, Zoe
- Lin, Zhong-Yi
- Lister, Tim
- Lowry, Stephen
- Magnes, Werner
- Markkanen, Johannes
- Martinez Navajas, Ignacio
- Martins, Zita
- Matsuoka, Ayako
- Matyjasiak, Barbara
- Mazelle, Christian
- Mazzotta Epifani, Elena
- Meier, Mirko
- Michaelis, Harald
- Micheli, Marco
- Migliorini, Alessandra
- Millet, Aude-Lyse
- Moreno, Fernando
- Mottola, Stefano
- Moutounaick, Bruno
- Muinonen, Karri
- Müller, Daniel
- Murakami, Go
- Murata, Naofumi
- Myszka, Kamil
- Nakajima, Shintaro
- Nemeth, Zoltan
- Nikolajev, Artiom
- Nordera, Simone
- Ohlsson, Dan
- Olesk, Aire
- Ottacher, Harald
- Ozaki, Naoya
- Oziol, Christophe
- Patel, Manish
- Savio Paul, Aditya
- Penttilä, Antti
- Pernechele, Claudio
- Peterson, Joakim
- Petraglio, Enrico
- Piccirillo, Alice Maria
- Plaschke, Ferdinand
- Polak, Szymon
- Postberg, Frank
- Proosa, Herman
- Protopapa, Silvia
- Puccio, Walter
- Ranvier, Sylvain
- Raymond, Sean
- Richter, Ingo
- Rieder, Martin
- Rigamonti, Roberto
- Ruiz Rodriguez, Irene
- Santolik, Ondrej
- Sasaki, Takahiro
- Schrödter, Rolf
- Shirley, Katherine
- Slavinskis, Andris
- Sodor, Balint
- Soucek, Jan
- Stephenson, Peter
- Stöckli, Linus
- Szewczyk, Paweł
- Troznai, Gabor
- Uhlir, Ludek
- Usami, Naoto
- Valavanoglou, Aris
- Vaverka, Jakub
- Wang, Wei
- Wang, Xiao-Dong
- Wattieaux, Gaëtan
- Wieser, Martin
- Wolf, Sebastian
- Yano, Hajime
- Yoshikawa, Ichiro
- Zakharov, Vladimir
- Zawistowski, Tomasz
- Zuppella, Paola
- Rinaldi, Giovanna
- Ji, Hantao
- Others:
- Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL) ; University College of London [London] (UCL)
- Centre for Planetary Sciences [UCL/Birkbeck] (CPS) ; University College of London [London] (UCL)
- University of Edinburgh
- Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali - INAF (IAPS) ; Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)
- European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) ; Agence Spatiale Européenne = European Space Agency (ESA)
- Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA) ; Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas = Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
- Institut für Geophysik und Extraterrestrische Physik [Braunschweig] (IGEP) ; Technische Universität Braunschweig = Technical University of Braunschweig [Braunschweig]
- Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie (IRAP) ; Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3) ; Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP) ; Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3) ; Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Armagh Observatory [Armagh]
- University of Canterbury [Christchurch]
- Imperial College London
- Department of Physics [Oxford] ; University of Oxford
- European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) ; Agence Spatiale Européenne = European Space Agency (ESA)
- CNR Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie [Padova] (IFN) ; National Research Council of Italy | Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR)
- Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy / Institut d'Aéronomie Spatiale de Belgique (BIRA-IASB)
- Swedish Institute of Space Physics [Kiruna] (IRF)
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
- INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste (OAT) ; Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)
- Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) ; Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency [Sagamihara] (JAXA)
- Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille (LAM) ; Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon - Terre, Planètes, Environnement (LGL-TPE) ; École normale supérieure de Lyon (ENS de Lyon)-Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL) ; Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne (UJM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Joseph Louis LAGRANGE (LAGRANGE) ; Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (1965 - 2019) (UNS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur ; Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- The University of Tokyo (UTokyo)
- Konkoly Observatory ; Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences [Budapest] ; Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA)-Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA)
- United States Naval Academy
- DLR Institute of Optical Sensor Systems ; Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt [Berlin] (DLR)
- PLANETO - LATMOS ; Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales (LATMOS) ; Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Space Research Centre of Polish Academy of Sciences (CBK) ; Polska Akademia Nauk = Polish Academy of Sciences = Académie polonaise des sciences (PAN)
- Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace (ISAE-SUPAERO)
- DLR Institut für Planetenforschung ; Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt [Berlin] (DLR)
- Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace (LPC2E) ; Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers en région Centre (OSUC) ; Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris ; Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris ; Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Paris] (CNES)
- Institut de Mécanique Céleste et de Calcul des Ephémérides (IMCCE) ; Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris ; Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Lille-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux [Pessac] (LAB) ; Université de Bordeaux (UB)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- LAboratoire PLasma et Conversion d'Energie (LAPLACE) ; Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3) ; Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National Polytechnique (Toulouse) (Toulouse INP) ; Université de Toulouse (UT)
- Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique = Laboratory of Space Studies and Instrumentation in Astrophysics (LESIA) ; Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris ; Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Cité (UPCité)
Description
Here we describe the novel, multi-point Comet Interceptor mission. It is dedicated to the exploration of a little-processed long-period comet, possibly entering the inner Solar System for the first time, or to encounter an interstellar object originating at another star. The objectives of the mission are to address the following questions: What are the surface composition, shape, morphology, and structure of the target object? What is the composition of the gas and dust in the coma, its connection to the nucleus, and the nature of its interaction with the solar wind? The mission was proposed to the European Space Agency in 2018, and formally adopted by the agency in June 2022, for launch in 2029 together with the Ariel mission. Comet Interceptor will take advantage of the opportunity presented by ESA's F-Class call for fast, flexible, low-cost missions to which it was proposed. The call required a launch to a halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L2 point. The mission can take advantage of this placement to wait for the discovery of a suitable comet reachable with its minimum $\varDelta $ Δ V capability of $600\text{ ms}^{-1}$ 600 ms − 1 . Comet Interceptor will be unique in encountering and studying, at a nominal closest approach distance of 1000 km, a comet that represents a near-pristine sample of material from the formation of the Solar System. It will also add a capability that no previous cometary mission has had, which is to deploy two sub-probes – B1, provided by the Japanese space agency, JAXA, and B2 – that will follow different trajectories through the coma. While the main probe passes at a nominal 1000 km distance, probes B1 and B2 will follow different chords through the coma at distances of 850 km and 400 km, respectively. The result will be unique, simultaneous, spatially resolved information of the 3-dimensional properties of the target comet and its interaction with the space environment. We present the mission's science background leading to these objectives, as well as an overview of the scientific instruments, mission design, and schedule.
Abstract
International audience
Additional details
- URL
- https://insu.hal.science/insu-04423938
- URN
- urn:oai:HAL:insu-04423938v1
- Origin repository
- UNICA