The optical head of the EnVisS camera for the Comet Interceptor ESA mission: phase 0 study

Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2020: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave; Virtual, Online; United States; 14 December 2020 through 22 December 2020; Code 166572.--Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering Volume 11443, 2020, Article number 1144379.--Full list of authors: Da Deppo, Vania; Pernechele, Claudio; Jones, Geraint H.; Brydon, George; Zuppella, Paola; Chioetto, Paolo; Nordera, Simone; Slemer, Alessandra; Crescenzio, Giuseppe; Piersanti, Emanuele; Spanò, Paolo; Bucciol, Gino; Consolaro, Luca; Lara, Luisa; Slavinskis, Andris
EnVisS (Entire Visible Sky) is an all-sky camera specifically designed to fly on the space mission Comet Interceptor. This mission has been selected in June 2019 as the first European Space Agency (ESA) Fast mission, a modest size mission with fast implementation. Comet Interceptor aims to study a dynamically new comet, or interstellar object, and its launch is scheduled in 2029 as a companion to the ARIEL mission. The mission study phase, called Phase 0, has been completed in December 2019, and then the Phase A study had started. Phase A will last for about two years until mission adoption expected in June 2022. The Comet Interceptor mission is conceived to be composed of three spacecraft: spacecraft A devoted to remote sensing science, and the other two, spacecraft B1 and B2, dedicated to a fly-by with the comet. EnVisS will be mounted on spacecraft B2, which is foreseen to be spin-stabilized. The camera is developed with the scientific task to image, in push-frame mode, the full comet coma in different colors. A set of ad-hoc selected broadband filters and polarizers in the visible range will be used to study the full scale distribution of the coma gas and dust species. The camera configuration is a fish-eye lens system with a FoV of about 180°x45°. This paper will describe the preliminary EnVisS optical head design and analysis carried out during the Phase 0 study of the mission. © COPYRIGHT SPIE.
This activity has been conducted and funded through an Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) contract to the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) n. 2020-4-HH.0.