Catching a comet

There’s an assumption with space missions that they must be years in the planning before they’re approved for launch. In the case of Comet Interceptor, a new UK-led project to observe a long-period comet up close for the first time, that assumption couldn’t be more wrong.

The first in a new type of F-Class (the F stands for ‘fast’) mission, Comet Interceptor was selected by ESA in June 2019, with the request for proposals having gone out less than a year before. Rather than years in the making, the entire concept for the mission is barely 18 months old.

“We had the idea a few months before [ESA’s call for proposals in July 2018], but actually, no, we started then,” mission proposal lead Prof Geraint Jones told The Engineer, shattering those aforementioned assumptions.

Jones is head of the Planetary Science Group at UCL’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory. Together with deputy mission lead Dr Colin Snodgrass from the University of Edinburgh, he tailored a plan based on the parameters of ESA’s request. Those included a launch mass of less than 1,000kg and a budget of €150m.