1. The Castalia Mission to Main Belt Comet 133P/Elst-Pizarro
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Snodgrass, C., Jones, G.H., Boehnhardt, H., Gibbings, A., Homeister, M., Andre, N., Beck, P., Bentley, M.S., Bertini, I., Bowles, N., Capria, M.T., Carr, C., Ceriotti, M., Coates, A.J., Della Corte, V., Donaldson Hanna, K.L., Fitzsimmons, A., Gutiérrez, P.J., Hainaut, O.R., Herique, A., Hilchenbach, M., Hsieh, H.H., Jehin, E., Karatekin, O., Kofman, W., Lara, L.M., Laudan, K., Licandro, J., Lowry, S.C., Marzari, F., Masters, A., Meech, K.J., Moreno, F., Morse, A., Orosei, R., Pack, A., Plettemeier, D., Prialnik, D., Rotundi, A., Rubin, M., Sánchez, J.P., Sheridan, S., Trieloff, M., Winterboer, A., School of Physical Sciences [Milton Keynes], Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics [Milton Keynes], The Open University [Milton Keynes] (OU)-The Open University [Milton Keynes] (OU), Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS), Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering [Univ Strathclyde], University of Strathclyde [Glasgow], OHB Systems AG, Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble (IPAG), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG ), Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry])-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Grenoble Alpes [2016-2019] (UGA [2016-2019])-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry])-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Grenoble Alpes [2016-2019] (UGA [2016-2019]), Space Research Institute of Austrian Academy of Sciences (IWF), Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW), Centro di Ateneo di Studi e Attività Spaziali 'Giuseppe Colombo' (CISAS), Universita degli Studi di Padova, Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics [Oxford] (AOPP), University of Oxford [Oxford], Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali - INAF (IAPS), Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Space and Atmospheric Physics Group [London], Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London-Imperial College London, Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL), University College of London [London] (UCL), Astrophysics Research Centre [Belfast] (ARC), Queen's University [Belfast] (QUB), Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung (MPS), Institut d'Astrophysique et de Géophysique [Liège], Université de Liège, Royal Observatory of Belgium [Brussels] (ROB), Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas [Madrid] (CSIC), Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC), Centre for Astrophysics and Planetary Science [Canterbury] (CAPS), University of Kent [Canterbury], Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia 'Galileo Galilei', Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica cosmica - Roma (IASF-Roma), Technische Universität Dresden = Dresden University of Technology (TU Dresden), Tel Aviv University [Tel Aviv], Universita degli studi di Napoli 'Parthenope' [Napoli], Physikalisches Institut [Bern], Universität Bern [Bern], Universität Heidelberg [Heidelberg], Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), Science and Technology Facilities Council [2006-2012], The Royal Society, The Open University [Milton Keynes] (OU), Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering [Glasgow], University of Strathclyde, Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG), Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry])-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry])-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Royal Observatory of Belgium [Brussels], Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas [Spain] (CSIC), Technische Universität Dresden (TUD), Science and Technology Facilities Council (UK), European Southern Observatory, ITA, GBR, FRA, DEU, ESP, and CHE
- Subjects
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) ,Asteroids ,Comets ,Main Belt Comets ,Spacecraft missions ,520 Astronomy ,astro-ph.EP ,[SDU.ASTR.EP]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Earth and Planetary Astrophysics [astro-ph.EP] ,FOS: Physical sciences ,620 Engineering ,0901 Aerospace Engineering ,0201 Astronomical And Space Sciences ,Aerospace & Aeronautics ,ComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUS ,Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics ,0913 Mechanical Engineering ,QB - Abstract
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, 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. © 2017 COSPAR, CS is funded by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council through a Ernest Rutherford fellowship. Fig. 1 is based on observations collected at the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere under ESO programme 184.C-1143.
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- 2017
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