Comet Interceptor / SCIENA

Comet Interceptor (CI) is an ESA F-class mission to do a multi-spacecraft study of a dynamically new comet.

Launch is planned early 2029 and will take CI to the Earth L2 Lagrange point for a stand-by phase lasting up to 4-years, while a seach for a suitable comet target will take place.

During the subsequent flyby, a suite of instruments will make detailed studies of both the comet nucleus as well as the surrounding gas, plasma and dust environment. This mission is a very nice continuation of ESA’s cometary mission Rosetta.

While Rosetta made single spacecraft measurements at slow pace in orbit around the weakly active comet 67P, Comet Interceptor will get a 3D snapshot of a comet that has not been close to the Sun before and therefore likely relatively unchanged.

The Swedish Institute of Space Physics contributes to this mission with the Solar wind and Cometary IOns and Energetic Neutral Atoms (SCIENA) instrument.

SCIENA is a combined ion and energetic neutral atom instrument of the SWIM family, with heritage from instruments flown in orbit around the moon with the Chandrayan-1 spacecraft, landed on the moon with the Chang´E 4 rover  and on the way to Mercury with Bepi Colombo.

The Comet Interceptor mission is currently in Phase B2, which for the scientific instrument means design and definition. We here seek funding for the full development, building and testing of the SCIENA instrument.