Abstract Comet Interceptor (Comet-I) was selected in June 2019 as the first ESA F-Class mission. In 2029+, Comet-I will hitch a ride to a Sun-Earth L2 quasi-halo orbit, as a co-passenger of ESA's M4 ARIEL mission. It will then remain idle at the L2 point until the right departure conditions are met to intercept a yet-to-be-discovered long period comet (or interstellar body). The fact that Comet-I target is thus unidentified becomes a key aspect of the trajectory and mission design. The paper first analyses the long period comet population and concludes that 2 to 3 feasible targets a year should be expected. Yet, Comet-I will only be able to access some of these, depending mostly on the angular distance between the Earth and the closest nodal point to the Earth's orbit radius. A preliminary analysis of the transfer trajectories has been performed to assess the trade-off between the accessible region and the transfer time for a given spacecraft design, including a fully chemical, a fully electric and a hybrid propulsion system. The different Earth escape options also play a paramount role to enhance Comet-I capability to reach possible long period comet targets. Particularly, Earth-leading intercept configurations have the potential to benefit the most from lunar swing-by departures. Finally, a preliminary Monte Carlo analysis shows that Comet-I has a 95–99% likelihood of successfully visit a pristine newly-discovered long period comet in less than 6 years of mission timespan.

    Highlights Comet-I mission aims to explore a Long Period Comet; ideally, dynamically new. Such a target will remain unidentified, possibly, even after launch. The paper analyses the orbital space that will be accessible for Comet-I S/C. Chemical, electric and hybrid propulsion systems are modelled in patched-conic. A Monte Carlo analysis shows a 95–99% of completing the mission within 6 years.


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    Title :

    ESA F-Class Comet Interceptor: Trajectory design to intercept a yet-to-be-discovered comet



    Published in:

    Acta Astronautica ; 188 ; 265-277


    Publication date :

    2021-07-11


    Size :

    13 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




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