By Dr. Charlotte Götz, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at ESTEC, European Space Agency, Netherlands

Voyage 2050 is the most recent iteration of ESA’s long-term planning of science priorities. In March 2019, ESA led a Call for White Papers (https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/voyage-2050/white-papers), where the scientific community was asked to submit papers focusing on scientific themes that could be addressed from 2035-2050. Amongst the authors were several early career researchers. We will speak with one of them: Dr. Charlotte Götz, a research fellow at ESA/ESTEC, who is the lead author for a white paper on Cometary Plasma Science. She is also involved in the upcoming Comet Interceptor mission as a Co-I. We will learn from her how she got involved in Comet Interceptor and became a white paper lead-author. We will also discuss what it is like to be involved in these projects, from the point of view of an early career researcher.