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takyon writes:

The European Space Agency (ESA) will launch a comet interception mission that does not target any particular comet. Instead, the spacecraft will hang out at the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L₂, and move to target an incoming yet undiscovered object that could be found by observatories such as the LSST:

The concept is a three-in-one probe: a mothership and two smaller daughter craft. They will separate near the comet to conduct different but complementary studies. The cost for Esa is expected to be about €150m. As is customary, individual member states will provide the instrumentation and cover that tab.

Interceptor was selected on Wednesday by the agency's Science Programme Committee as part of the new F-Class series - "F" standing for fast. The call for ideas only went out a year ago. There will now be a period of feasibility assessment with industry before the committee reconvenes to formally "adopt" the concept. At that point, the mission becomes the real deal.

The intention is to launch the probe on the same rocket as Esa's Ariel space telescope when it goes up at the end of the next decade. This observatory won't use the full performance of its launch vehicle, and so spare mass and volume is available to do something additional.

And it's Ariel's destination that makes Interceptor a compelling prospect. The telescope is to be positioned at a "gravitational sweetspot" about 1.5 million km from Earth. This is an ideal position from which to study distant stars and their planets - but it also represents a fast-response "parking bay" for any new mission seeking a target of opportunity.

The type of comets being sought by Interceptor tend to give little notice of their impending arrival in the inner Solar System - perhaps only a few months. That's insufficient time to plan, build and launch a spacecraft. You need to be out there already, waiting for the call. This is what Interceptor will do. It will be sitting at the sweetspot, relying on sky surveys to find it a suitable target. When that object is identified, the probe will then set off to meet it.

ARIEL:

The Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey (ARIEL), is a space telescope planned for launch in 2028 as the fourth medium-class mission of the European Space Agency's Cosmic Vision programme. The mission is aimed at observing at least 1,000 known exoplanets using the transit method, studying and characterising the planets' chemical composition and thermal structures.

Also at Discover Magazine.

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