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Published December 1, 2018 | public
Journal Article

Camilla: A Centaur reconnaissance and impact mission concept

Abstract

Centaurs, minor planets with a semi-major axis between the orbits of Jupiter and Neptune (5–30 AU), are thought to be among the most diverse small bodies in the solar system. These important targets for future missions may have recently been Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs), which are thought to be chemically and physically primitive remnants of the early solar system. While the Kuiper Belt spans distances of 30–50 AU, making direct observations difficult, Centaurs' proximity to the Earth and Sun make them more accessible targets for robotic missions. Thus, we outline a mission concept designed to reconnoiter 10199 Chariklo, the largest Centaur and smallest ringed body yet discovered. Named for a legendary Centaur tamer, the conceptual Camilla mission is designed to fit under the cost cap of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) New Frontiers program, leveraging a conservative payload to support a foundational scientific investigation to these primitive bodies. Specifically, the single flyby encounter utilizes a combined high-resolution camera/VIS-IR mapping spectrometer, a sub-mm point spectrometer, and a UV mapping spectrometer. In addition, the mission concept utilizes a kinetic impactor, which would provide the first opportunity to sample the composition of potentially primitive subsurface material beyond Saturn, thus providing key insights into solar system origins. Such a flyby of the Chariklo system would provide a linchpin in the understanding of small body composition, evolution, and transport of materials in the solar system.

Additional Information

© 2018 Elsevier. Received 14 April 2018, Revised 5 June 2018, Accepted 17 July 2018, Available online 20 July 2018. This research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. We wish to thank L. Lowes and J. Armijo for their programmatic support of PSSS, and the volunteer panel that reviewed our mission concept. Further, we wish to thank W. Smythe for his guidance, D. Landau for his aid in mission trajectory design and software support, and the members of TeamX for their aid in producing this mission concept. Finally, we thank J. Castillo for her informal review of an earlier draft of this manuscript.

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
October 18, 2023