Engineering news
Thales Alenia Space has won the contract to design the mother ship for the Comet Interceptor mission, the government announced today (14 December). Design will be centred in Bristol and Harwell in Oxfordshire, a national centre for the UK’s thriving space sector.
The main spacecraft will carry two smaller robotic probes – built by the Japanese Space Agency – to an as-yet unidentified comet before mapping it in three dimensions.
Once in space, Comet Interceptor will wait in a parking orbit – possibly for years – until a suitable target has been spotted. It will then set out on an intercept course, deploying the two smaller probes, which will make extremely close passes of the comet’s nucleus and beam data back to the main craft.
The fly-by of the two probes, which are roughly 30cm in length, is likely to take just a few hours but could illuminate conditions that prevailed more than 4 billion years ago.
The European Space Agency (ESA) mission could “help unlock the mysteries of the universe”, science minister Amanda Solloway said. It was originally proposed by an international team led by UK academics from University College London and the University of Edinburgh, among others.
Previous missions have studied comets trapped in short-period orbits around the Sun, meaning they have been significantly altered by its light and heat. Breaking from that mould, Comet Interceptor will target a pristine comet on its first approach to the Sun.
Once the probes reach the target, they will study and scrutinise its chemical composition. One aim is to evaluate whether similar objects could have brought water to Earth in the past.
Andrew Stanniland, CEO of Thales Alenia Space in the UK, said: “I am delighted ESA has once again placed its trust in our scientists and engineers at Thales Alenia Space in the UK, who have excellent heritage from previous scientific missions such as Giotto and Rosetta.
“We all look forward to supporting this exciting and unprecedented scientific mission to uncover more information about the origins of our universe”.
The comet interceptor is the first of the ESA’s new class of ‘fast’ missions. Each mission must weigh less than 1,000kg and launch within eight years of selection, so they can ‘hitchhike’ into space on an already scheduled launch.
Comet Interceptor will launch in 2028 alongside the Ariel space telescope – the UK-backed ESA mission to study the atmospheres of exoplanets orbiting other distant stars.
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