The Comet Interceptor Mission

We dedicate this work to the memory of Prof. Anny-Chantal Levasseur-Regourd (1945–2022) and Dr. Maria Teresa Capria (1954–2022). Both were unfailing supporters of the Comet Interceptor mission.

GHJ and CS acknowledge the support of the UK Space Agency; GHJ and AJC are grateful to STFC for partial support through consolidated grant ST/S000240/1. GHJ was supported for part of this work through the Visiting Scientist program of the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) in Bern. This work was supported by the Italian Space Agency (Contracts ASI-INAF n. 2020-4-HH.0, Addendum n. 2020-4-HH.1-2020 and 2020-4-HH.2-2021, and ASI-INAF agreement I/024/12/0) and by the European Space Agency (Contracts ESA-CNR n. 4000136673/21/NL/IB/ig and 3-17164/21/NL/GP/pbe COMET INTERCEPTOR-IT-3 – Comet Interceptor Dust Impact Effect Study. Work in Japan was supported by MEXT/JSPS KAKENHI Grants 21H04509, 22H01280, and 17KK0097. Co-authors in France acknowledge the support of CNES for the Comet Interceptor mission. Work in Germany was financially supported by the German Ministerium fuer Wirtschaft und Energie and the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt under contract 50OW2101. Support by the Swedish National Space Agency through Grant 108/18 is acknowledged. Work at IRF-Uppsala is supported by the Swedish National Space Agency, DNr 2021-00047. Work at BIRA-IASB acknowledges BELSPO funding via PRODEX PEA 4000133230. Work at BIRA-IASB acknowledges BELSPO funding via PRODEX PEA 4000133230 and via B2/191/P1/SeVoCo. MRELM is partly supported by the internal grant 8474000336-KU-SPSC. The work at Imperial College London was supported by the UK Space Agency [grant numbers ST/W002604/1, ST/V002767/1 and ST/X002349/1] and by ESA [4000130837/20/NL/IB/ig]. ZL acknowledges support by STFC [ST/W507519/1]. Work at the Open University, UK was supported by ESA [4000134679/21/NL/GP/pbe]. CG acknowledges the Research Fellowship Programme at the European Space Agency (ESA) for support. AGL has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No 802699). The work of AK was supported by the PRODEX 4000132506 project of ESA and the KKM of Hungary. Work at IAA is supported by project PGC2018-099425-B-I00 (MCI/AEI/FEDER, UE). Work in Switzerland was supported by SSO/SNF (200020_207312)/ State of Bern/ ESA. CSW and MV thank the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) P32035-N36 and P35954-N. This work was supported by NASA HQ, Washington DC USA, and JPL/NASA. The work of RH is funded by the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB, grant no. SB/S2/RJN-080/2018), a statutory body of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India through the Ramanujan Fellowship. KM’s research supported by the Academy of Finland grants No. 1345115 and 1336546, and AP by their grant no. 325805. TK’s work was supported by ESA EXPRO funds, the Academy of Finland project No. 335595, the NASA Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science, and it was conducted within institutional support RVO 67985831 of the Institute of Geology of the Czech Academy of Sciences. MTB appreciates support by the Rutherford Discovery Fellowships from New Zealand Government funding, administered by the Royal Society Te Apārangi. Centro de Química Estrutural acknowledges the financial support of FCT-Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (UIDB/00100/2020 and UIDP/00100/2020), and Institute of Molecular Sciences acknowledges the financial support of FCT-Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (LA/P/0056/2020). MRELM acknowledges funding from the KU internal grant (8474000336-KU-SPSC). MK gratefully acknowledges funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101079231 (EXOHOST), and from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the UK government’s Horizon Europe funding guarantee (grant number 10051045).

The authors declare no competing interests.