OPIC

University of Tartu´s role is to deliver the OPIC instrument for the European Space Agency (ESA) F-class mission Comet Interceptor together with an industrial partner that is selected by ESA. OPIC is tasked with taking images of the comet's nucleus and its near environment and coma.
The University of Tartu is leading the development of OPIC and is also responsivle of the scientific research conducted using the instrument.

University of Tartu built the second engineering model of OPIC (OPIC EM2), together with the electrical functional model (OPIC EFM and STM), which will be delivered for integration tests with the spacecraft prime contractor. After this, University of Tartu supervised and coordinated the process of manufacturing the qualification and flight models of OPIC (OPIC QM, FM and FS). The qualification and verification of the flight models (the manufacturing itself is done by the industrial partner) and providing the necessary documentation is also the task of University of Tartu.

Instrument is named after the Estonian astronomer Ernst Julius Öpik. Öpik initiated cooperation between the Tartu and Harvard observatories in meteor observations during 1930–1934, measured for the first time the distance between the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way, and played an important role in establishing the theory of stellar evolution. In 1932, Öpik proposed a theory that comets moving within the Solar System originate from a vast cloud located at the outer edges of the Solar System, which is now known as the Öpik–Oort cloud.