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

C. Snodgrass (1) , G.H. Jones , H. Boehnhardt (2) , A. Gibbings (3) , M. Homeister (4) , N. Andre , P. Beck (5) , M.S. Bentley (6) , I. Bertini (7) , N. Bowles (8) , M.T. Capria (9) , C. Carr (10) , M. Ceriotti , A.J. Coates (11) , V. Della Corte (9) , K.L. Donaldson Hanna , A. Fitzsimmons (12) , P.J. Gutiérrez , O.R. Hainaut , A. Herique (5) , M. Hilchenbach (2) , H.H. Hsieh , E. Jehin (13) , O. Karatekin (14) , W. Kofman (5) , L.M. Lara (15) , K. Laudan , J. Licandro (16) , S.C. Lowry (17) , F. Marzari (18) , A. Masters (10) , K.J. Meech , F. Moreno (15) , A. Morse , R. Orosei (19) , A. Pack , D. Plettemeier (20) , D. Prialnik (21) , A. Rotundi (22) , M. Rubin (23) , J.P. Sanchez , S. Sheridan , M. Trieloff (24) , A. Winterboer

1 School of Physical Sciences [Milton Keynes]
2 MPS - Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung = Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research
3 Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering [Univ Strathclyde]
4 OHB Systems AG - Orbitale Hochtechnologie Bremen
5 IPAG - Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble
6 IWF - Space Research Institute of Austrian Academy of Sciences
7 CISAS - Centro di Ateneo di Studi e Attività Spaziali “Giuseppe Colombo”
8 AOPP - Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics [Oxford]
9 IAPS - Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali - INAF
10 Space and Atmospheric Physics Group [London]
11 MSSL - Mullard Space Science Laboratory
12 ARC - Astrophysics Research Centre [Belfast]
13 Institut d'Astrophysique et de Géophysique [Liège]
14 ROB - Royal Observatory of Belgium = Observatoire Royal de Belgique
15 IAA - Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía
16 IAC - Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias
17 CAPS - Centre for Astrophysics and Planetary Science [Canterbury]
18 Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia "Galileo Galilei"
19 IASF-Roma - Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica cosmica - Roma
20 TU Dresden - Technische Universität Dresden = Dresden University of Technology
21 TAU - Tel Aviv University
22 PARTHENOPE - Università degli Studi di Napoli “Parthenope” = University of Naples
23 Physikalisches Institut [Bern]
24 Universität Heidelberg [Heidelberg] = Heidelberg University

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 char-acterising 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.

Mots clés: Comets; Asteroids; Main Belt Comets; Spacecraft missions

Domaines: Planétologie et astrophysique de la terre [astro-ph.EP]

C. Snodgrass, G.H. Jones, H. Boehnhardt, A. Gibbings, M. Homeister, et al.. The Castalia mission to Main Belt Comet 133P/Elst-Pizarro. Advances in Space Research, 2018, 62 (8), pp.1947-1976. ⟨10.1016/j.asr.2017.09.011⟩. ⟨hal-02350051⟩