Abstract

Invited Talk - Splinter MinorBodies

Tuesday, 10 September 2024, 15:25   (S21)

Comet Interceptor – A Rapid Response Mission to a Pristine World

Michael Küppers and the Comet Interceptor Team
ESA/ESAC

Comet Interceptor is the first Fast (F-class) mission in ESA’s Cosmic Vision program, and is the first rapid response mission, waiting in space for its target comet to appear. Its goal is the first in situ investigation of a long-period comet, ideally a dynamically new comet that reaches the inner solar system for the first time . The mission will investigate the processes of planetesimal formation by evaluating which of the phenomena observed by previous missions to short-period comets (SPCs), particularly during the rendezvous of Rosetta with Comet 67P, are primordial and which have developed during the many perihelion passages of those SPCs. Comet Interceptor (Spacecraft A or S/C A) will carry two deployable probes, allowing multipoint investigations of the target. Probe B1 is contributed by JAXA and probe B2 by ESA. The mission will be launched in 2029 on an Ariane 6 towards the Sun-earth Lagrange point L2, together with the Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey (ARIEL) mission. The comet encounter, a fast flyby with a relative velocity between 10 km/s and 70 km/s, will take place near earth’ orbit (between 0.9 and 1.2 AU from the sun), at the location where the target comet crosses the ecliptic. The duration of the waiting time (typically a few years) and of the transfer to encounter (typically between several months and a few years) depend on the target.