The Comet Interceptor Mission

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F67985831%3A_____%2F24%3A00582321" target="_blank" >RIV/67985831:_____/24:00582321 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/68378289:_____/24:00582321 RIV/00216208:11320/24:10492176

Result on the web

<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11214-023-01035-0" target="_blank" >https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11214-023-01035-0</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11214-023-01035-0" target="_blank" >10.1007/s11214-023-01035-0</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

The Comet Interceptor Mission

Original language 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 Δ V capability of 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.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10308 - Astronomy (including astrophysics,space science)

Project

—

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2024

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Space Science Reviews

ISSN

0038-6308

e-ISSN

1572-9672

Volume of the periodical

220

Issue of the periodical within the volume

1

Country of publishing house

DE - GERMANY

Number of pages

83

Pages from-to

9

UT code for WoS article

001194889900001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85183417097