LAUSR

Abstract The ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopy of comets at 115–310 nm wavelengths is a powerful tool of research, because this range of the electromagnetic spectrum contains the majority of resonance lines of atoms, molecules, and ions. Due to the opacity of the Earth's atmosphere, such research can only be performed with space observatories. The World Space Observatory — Ultraviolet (WSO-UV) mission, planned for launch in 2023, will allow most of the challenges to be overcome in the UV studies of comets and will be able to become an essential research tool. The World Space Observatory Ultraviolet (WSO-UV), an international mission with Russia and Spain as the main contributors, consists of a 1.7 m telescope with an imaging camera, two spectrographs in the range of 115–176 and 174–310 nm with a resolution of R = 50,000 for high resolution spectral observations and a long-slit-spectrograph for R = 1000 observations.