EGU24-9078, updated on 08 Mar 2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-9078
EGU General Assembly 2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

On the question of when to settle for a target in the Comet Interceptor mission

Erik Vigren1, Anders I. Eriksson1, Niklas J. T. Edberg1, and Colin Snodgrass2
Erik Vigren et al.
  • 1Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala, Sweden (erik.vigren@irfu.se)
  • 2School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, UK

The Comet Interceptor (CI) mission, planned for launch in 2029, will ideally involve a flyby of a dynamically new long period comet or an interstellar object passing through the inner solar system. Powerful ground based facilities like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time will aid in the search for a potential target. The CI mission includes a parking phase at the Sun-Earth L2 point and the target may in fact still be unknown by the time of launch. The question on when to settle for a target is complex. For instance may arise the question of how long time it is motivated to await with a final decision given the chance that a better target may show up if just waiting a little bit longer. We present expectation value-based formalism that could aid in decision making of such kind.

How to cite: Vigren, E., Eriksson, A. I., Edberg, N. J. T., and Snodgrass, C.: On the question of when to settle for a target in the Comet Interceptor mission, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-9078, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-9078, 2024.