COMA MODEL FOR COMET INTERCEPTOR – EXPRO PLUS
20, May 2021

ESA Open Invitation to Tender: 1-10796
Open Date: 11/05/2021 10:55 CEST
Closing Date: 22/06/2021 13:00 CEST

During Comet Interceptor Cocurrent Design Facility (CDF) studies 1 and 2, a simplified, spherically symmetric coma model based on first principles was used to assess cometary dust fluences and fluxes as function of mass impinging on spacecraft walls accounting for s/c attitude. However the lack of physics such as radiation pressure and drag forces in the model, together with limited capabilities to account for dust mass and velocities distribution (alpha) have proven to lead to inconsistencies when trying to benchmark the model outputs to actual data gathered during the GIOTTO and Rosetta flybys. The uncertainty associated with such discrepancies is an issue to ensure reliable design margins regarding particle impact risk, which given Comet Interceptor very large relative velocity range is a major design driver for platform and instruments.The coma model developed in this activity shall be parametrized and allow for some flexibility in allowing to account for:- cometary activity (dust mass rate and dust number rate), as related to Afp parameter (for quantifying optical photometry)- dust mass, size, velocity, and density distributions- spatial inhomogeneities in the surface emission rate (due to cometary surface illumination conditions or other relevant processes)The model shall also allow the user to define a simplified s/c geometry (walls surface areas and orientation in e.g. the comet reference frame) as well as fly by trajectories with attitude parameters (orientation change as a function of time and position).

Estabilishment: ESTEC
ECOS Required: No
Classified: No
Price Range: 200-500 KEURO
Contracts Officer: Christophe Rene R. Seynaeve
Initiating Service: TEC-EPS
IP Measure: N/A
Prog. Reference: E/0901-01 – Technology Developme
Tender Type: Open Competition
Open To Tenderers From: AT+BE+CH+CZ+DE+DK+EE+EL+ES+FI+FR+GB+HU+IE+IT+LU+NL+NO+PL+PT+RO+SE
Technology Keywords: 1-A-I-System Technologies for Payload Data Processing
Products Keywords: 2-M-3-a-Radiation belts, Solar energetic particles, Galactic cosmic rays,…

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