A Potential Aid in the Target Selection for the Comet Interceptor Mission

2023/08/24 by Erik Vigren, Anders I. Eriksson, Vigren, Erik +5 · 1 voice · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) #FOS: Physical sciences #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) #astro-ph.EP #astro-ph.IM

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2308.13098

Abstract

The upcoming Comet Interceptor mission involves a parking phase around the Sun-Earth L2 point before transferring to intercept the orbit of a long period comet, interstellar object or a back-up target in the form of a short-period comet. The target is not certain to be known before the launch in 2029. During the parking phase there may thus arise a scenario wherein a decision needs to be taken of whether to go for a particular comet or whether to discard that option in the hope that a better target will appear within a reasonable time frame later on. We present an expectation value-based formalism that could aid in the associated decision making provided that outlined requirements for its implementation exist.

Cited by

• Considerations on the process of target selection for the Comet Interceptor mission

Discussions

• My understanding is that it is most likely that Comet Interceptor will not have an interstellar object in its reachable volume. But the mission team has considered the possibility for a few years now. [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]

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