Considerations on the process of target selection for the Comet Interceptor mission
Publisher DOI
Abstract
Comet Interceptor is an ESA science mission with payload contributions from ESA Member States and with an
international participation by JAXA. It is the first mission that is being designed, built, and potentially launched
before its target is known. This approach will enable the spacecraft to perform the first mission to a Long Period
Comet from the Oort Cloud, as these comets have fleeting visits to the inner Solar System lasting only months to
years from first discovery, too short for the usual process of mission development to be followed. In this paper we
describe a number of factors that need to be considered in selecting a target for the mission, including scientific,
orbital, spacecraft and instrument constraints, and discussion of different prioritisation strategies. We find that,
in the case where we have a choice of targets, our decisions will mostly be driven by orbital information, which
we will have relatively early on, with information on the activity level of the comet an important but secondary
consideration. As cometary activity levels are notoriously hard to predict based on early observations alone, this
prioritisation / decision approach based more on orbits gives us confidence that a good comet that is compatible
with the spacecraft constraints will be selectable with sufficient warning time to allow the mission to intercept it.
international participation by JAXA. It is the first mission that is being designed, built, and potentially launched
before its target is known. This approach will enable the spacecraft to perform the first mission to a Long Period
Comet from the Oort Cloud, as these comets have fleeting visits to the inner Solar System lasting only months to
years from first discovery, too short for the usual process of mission development to be followed. In this paper we
describe a number of factors that need to be considered in selecting a target for the mission, including scientific,
orbital, spacecraft and instrument constraints, and discussion of different prioritisation strategies. We find that,
in the case where we have a choice of targets, our decisions will mostly be driven by orbital information, which
we will have relatively early on, with information on the activity level of the comet an important but secondary
consideration. As cometary activity levels are notoriously hard to predict based on early observations alone, this
prioritisation / decision approach based more on orbits gives us confidence that a good comet that is compatible
with the spacecraft constraints will be selectable with sufficient warning time to allow the mission to intercept it.
Date Issued
2026-03
Publication Type
Article
Language(s)
en
Author(s)
Snodgrass, C. | |
Mazzotta Epifani, E. | |
Tubiana, C. | |
Sánchez, J.P. | |
Biver, N. | |
Inno, L. | |
Knight, M.M. | |
Lacerda, P. | |
De Keyser, J. | |
Donaldson, A. | |
Edberg, N.J.T. | |
Galand, M. | |
Guilbert-Lepoutre, A. | |
Henri, P. | |
Kasahara, S. | |
Kawakita, H. | |
Kokotanekova, R. | |
Kueppers, M. | |
Micheli, M. | |
Pajusalu, M. | |
Sakatani, N. | |
Yoshioka, K. | |
Della Corte, V. | |
Eriksson, A.I. | |
Fulle, M. | |
Holt, C. | |
Lara, L. | |
Rotundi, A. | |
Jehin, E. |
Journal
Icarus
Publisher
Elsevier
ISSN
0019-1035
Access(Rights)
open.access