The Comet Interceptor mission was formally adopted by the European Space Agency (ESA) on 8 June. The decision moved the project from design to the implementation phase, and the search for a contractor will begin.
The mission is scheduled to launch in 2029 and will consist of a main spacecraft and two probes. The mission is to travel around 1.6 million kilometres from Earth to the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point L2 and wait for a ‘pristine’ comet to enter the inner solar system. It will then deploy the probes to collect data and map the comet.
Pristine comets are bodies that have had limited interaction with solar system objects. Humanity has never encountered and explored such an object, as most accessible comets are ‘short period’, objects that have approached the sun numerous times and have undergone changes to their surface.
Pristine comets are new comets to pass through the solar system. However until recently we have not been able to detect them early enough to have a chance at studying them as they rapidly traverse the inner solar system. New detection technology and the waiting Comet Interceptor will change that.
The mission was first proposed by an international team led by University College London’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL) in Surrey and the University of Edinburgh.
Caroline Harper, Head of Space Science at the UK Space Agency said, “This is a huge milestone for the Comet Interceptor mission. After an intensive period working on the mission design feasibility and definition, we are ready to move forward to the full implementation stage. Comet Interceptor will not only further our understanding of the evolution of comets but help unlock the mysteries of the Universe.”
Professor Geraint Jones, from the UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory said, “We should get our first glimpse of a truly pristine body with this mission – an invaluable example of the objects that came together to form the Earth and other planets. The comet’s surface will be largely unchanged since the time of the Solar System’s formation several billion years ago, and I can’t wait to see that uncharted territory sometime in the 2030s. It’s fantastic to get the green light for the mission after almost four years of hard work since the European Space Agency’s invitation to propose came out.”
