The Comet Interceptor Mission – with Prof M Galand
Rendez-vous with a yet-to-be-identified comet!
Professor Marina Galand - Professor in Planetary Science, Department of Physics, Imperial.
Comet Interceptor is the next European Space Agency (ESA) mission to a comet. It is building on the heritage of Giotto, which flew by comet 1P/Halley, and Rosetta, which escorted comet 67P over two years. Unlike the targets of the past two cometary missions, Comet Interceptor aims at flying by a long-period comet, ideally a dynamically new comet which will penetrate in the inner Solar System for the first time. It is the first rapid response mission. As its target has not yet been identified, it will be parking in space, ready to transfer and flyby the target once selected. The second originality of the mission is that it is composed of three spacecraft, which offers an exciting multipoint capability.
In order to address the science, a set of instruments, from remote-sensing cameras to field, plasma, and dust sensors, have been selected. This payload is currently getting integrated on the spacecraft. At Imperial, we are leading the magnetometer on one of the probes. It will be measuring the three components of the magnetic field vector. Beside cameras, magnetometers are the only instrument present on all three spacecraft, hence fully exploiting the multi-point capability of Comet Interceptor. This will offer, among others, the first opportunity to assess the 3D structure of magnetic boundaries resulting from the interaction of the solar wind with the cometary plasma, a plasma laboratory on scale not possible on Earth. In support of this activity and building on our Rosetta experience, we have developed modelling tools to explore the physics at play in the cometary environment.
Launch of Comet Interceptor is expected at the end of 2028/early 2029. Stay tuned!
Professor Galand’s principal research interest is the study of planetary atmospheres. In particular, she investigates solar and auroral particle energy deposition in atmospheres of planets, moons, and comets throughout the solar system, using sophisticated kinetic and fluid models which she has developed and adapted to new environments for the past 20 years.
Through close collaborations with instrument teams of major space missions (Cassini, Venus Express, Rosetta), Professor Galand has used these models as binding elements between datasets from different instruments and thus optimized the scientific output from such measurements. Looking towards the future, she is leading the magnetometer on probe B2 for ESA/Comet Interceptor and is Science CoI for the plasma (RPWI) and ultraviolet (UVS) instruments on ESA/JUICE en route towards Jupiter.
Event image courtesy of ESA
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