The Castalia mission to Main Belt Comet 133P/Elst-Pizarro

C. Snodgrass*, G. H. Jones, H. Boehnhardt, A. Gibbings, M. Homeister, N. Andre, P. Beck, M. S. Bentley, I. Bertini, N. Bowles, M. T. Capria, C. Carr, M. Ceriotti, A. J. Coates, V. Della Corte, K. L. Donaldson Hanna, A. Fitzsimmons, P. J. Gutiérrez, O. R. Hainaut, A. HeriqueM. Hilchenbach, H. H. Hsieh, E. Jehin, O. Karatekin, W. Kofman, L. M. Lara, K. Laudan, J. Licandro, S. C. Lowry, F. Marzari, A. Masters, K. J. Meech, F. Moreno, A. Morse, R. Orosei, A. Pack, D. Plettemeier, D. Prialnik, A. Rotundi, M. Rubin, J. P. Sánchez, S. Sheridan, M. Trieloff, A. Winterboer

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

28 Scopus citations

Abstract

We describe Castalia, a proposed mission to rendezvous with a Main Belt Comet (MBC), 133P/Elst-Pizarro. MBCs are a recently discovered population of apparently icy bodies within the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, which may represent the remnants of the population which supplied the early Earth with water. Castalia will perform the first exploration of this population by characterising 133P in detail, solving the puzzle of the MBC's activity, and making the first in situ measurements of water in the asteroid belt. In many ways a successor to ESA's highly successful Rosetta mission, Castalia will allow direct comparison between very different classes of comet, including measuring critical isotope ratios, plasma and dust properties. It will also feature the first radar system to visit a minor body, mapping the ice in the interior. Castalia was proposed, in slightly different versions, to the ESA M4 and M5 calls within the Cosmic Vision programme. We describe the science motivation for the mission, the measurements required to achieve the scientific goals, and the proposed instrument payload and spacecraft to achieve these.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1947-1976
Number of pages30
JournalAdvances in Space Research
Volume62
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - 15 Oct 2018

Funding

FundersFunder number
Not addedST/L004569/1
Southern Hemisphere184.C-1143
Science and Technology Facilities CouncilST/K001051/1, ST/H002383/1, ST/N000722/1
Science and Technology Facilities Council
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt

    Keywords

    • Asteroids
    • Comets
    • Main Belt Comets
    • Spacecraft missions

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