...it is time to build upon their successes and visit a pristine comet, or be ready for the next ‘Oumuamua-like interstellar object.” What is a Fast mission? Comet Interceptor is a ‘fast’, or F-class mission. The ‘fast’ refers to the implementation time...
...risk, especially untested mission-critical flight control software. Thanks to popular sci-fi movies like Gravity and Interstellar, we tend to associate space with the latest and greatest technology. This is sometimes true, because operating a complex...
...these species, relative to that of amorphous silicates, is far above the expected value for these grains in the interstellar medium, it is implied that significant grain processing occurred sometime in the early epoch of disc formation, either during...
... and filling the Solar System with vibrant life. Europa, Mars, the asteroid colonies - but also, interstellar. As Elon Musk recommends, let’s put our eggs in many baskets. Still, like me, you’d probably hanker to do something...
... (giant plasma balls), supernovae (exploding plasma clouds), star formation regions (cold partially ionised plasmas), the interstellar medium (very tenuous hot plasma), etc. On Earth we have atmospheric lightning (short duration plasma channels), the...
...return cometary samples. In 2004, the Stardust spacecraft made a close flyby of comet Wild-2, collecting comet and interstellar dust, returning samples to Earth in a capsule two years later. On top of the flexibility, architectural layouts were taken...