STELLA—Potential European contributions to a NASA-led interstellar probe
- 1University of Kiel, Institut für Experimentelle und Angewandte Physik, Kiel, Germany (wimmer@physik.uni-kiel.de)
- 2Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie, UPS, CNES, Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France
- 3Swedish Institute od Space Phyics, Kiruna, Sweden
- 4Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD, United States
- 5Department of Physics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Space and Atmospheric Physics Group, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom
- 6Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
- 7Laboratoire d’astrophysique de Bordeaux, University Bordeaux, Pessac, France,
- 8Héliosphère, Exosphéres Planétaires, Plasmas et Interfaces, Laboratoire Atmosphères, Observations Spatiales, Guyancourt, France
- 9Department of Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
- 10peter.wurz@space.unibe.ch
Stella is a proposed European contribution to NASA’s Interstellar Probe (ISP), a large-strategic mission candidate. ESA’s call for M-class mission proposals was the best and only currently available option for the European science community to contribute to the astronomically constrained ISP launch window in 2036 – 2037. Traveling with a speed of ~ 7.0 au/year ISP would reach 350 au during its nominal 50-year life-time. The proposed Stella contribution to ISP includes two core and two optional elements for the full complement:
• Core: Provision of European scientific instruments;
• Core: Provision of the European ISP communication system including the spacecraft’s 5-m high gain antenna;
• Full complement: ESA deep space communication facility: an extension of ESA’s DSA with a new antenna array;
• Full complement: Contribution to ISP operations to increase drastically the ISP and European payloads science return.
How to cite: Wimmer-Schweingruber, R. F., André, N., Barabash, S., Brandt, P. C., Horbury, T. S., Iess, L., Lavraud, B., McNutt, Jr., R. L., Provornikova, E. A., Quémerais, E., Wicks, R., Wieser, M., and Wurz, P.: STELLA—Potential European contributions to a NASA-led interstellar probe, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 24–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-4065, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-4065, 2023.