The BepiColombo/MMO model payload and operation plan

doi:10.1016/S0273-1177(03)00438-1

Advances in Space Research

Volume 33, Issue 12, 2004, Pages 2142-2146

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0273-1177(03)00438-1 Get rights and content

Abstract

The Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) of Japan plans to contribute the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO) to the BepiColombo program, the ESA Cornerstone mission to the planet Mercury. The principal objective of the MMO is to study the magnetic field and magnetosphere of Mercury. The ISAS Mercury exploration working group has performed the definition study of the MMO mission in cooperation with the ESA/ESTEC BepiColombo project team. This paper briefly reviews the scientific objectives, and describes the model payload and its operation plan.

Introduction

Mercury is one of the most interesting objects in space physics and planetary exploration. The only spacecraft which has visited Mercury is Mariner 10 near aphelion, during three flybys in 1974 and 1975. With advances in spacecraft technology and a growing realization of the importance of Mercury, two missions are now planned to revisit this planet (e.g., Grard and Balogh, 2001). The first one is the NASA Discovery mission, MESSENGER, which will be launched in 2004 to orbit Mercury in 2009 (Solomon et al., 2001). The second one is the more comprehensive BepiColombo mission, which consists of three elements; the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO), the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO), and the Mercury Surface Element (MSE). With two launches during the same window in 2010–2011, this mission will use solar electric propulsion in the interplanetary cruise phase to enable Mercury orbit insertion in 2014 with chemical propulsion. BepiColombo is an ESA Cornerstone mission, but it is also conducted in collaboration with the Japanese Space Agency ISAS, which plans to provide the MMO. The overall mission summary is reported by Novara (2001), and the MMO spacecraft design is described in Yamakawa et al. (2004). This paper focuses on the scientific targets of the MMO, and its model payload and operation plan.

Section snippets

Scientific targets

The most remarkable finding of Mariner 10 was the discovery of the intrinsic magnetic field of Mercury (Ness et al., 1974, Ness et al., 1975), which is strong enough to stand off the solar wind and form the magnetosphere (e.g., Russel et al., 1988). The presence of the dipolar magnetic field imposes a constraint on the composition and thermal evolution of the Mercury interior (Schubert et al., 1988), but estimates of its moment vary considerably among different authors, largely as a result of

MMO model payload

Fig. 2 shows the model payload and its relation with the scientific objectives described in the previous section. The model payload consists of particle and field instruments, but an imaging system is also included for studies of the Mercury atmosphere and surface. The block diagram of the instruments and their specifications are given in Fig. 3 and Table 1, respectively. To reduce both the mass and power requirements, the particle common system (PCS) provides the power supplies (DC/DC

Data production plan

Continuous data coverage is quite important in this mission. On the other hand, the Mercury magnetosphere is highly dynamic with short time scales, and a high data production rate is sometimes desirable. Therefore the basic plan for MMO operation is to gather low time resolution data continuously in the solar wind and medium time resolution data continuously in the magnetosphere. High time resolution data are taken intermittently by either triggering or pre-planned timing. Allocated telemetry

Summary

MMO is expected to bring exciting results which will help us to understand many important issues about the magnetic field and the magnetosphere of Mercury. A comprehensive package of plasma and field instruments, and imagers is considered for the model payload. The final selection of instruments is expected in 2004 from proposals submitted in response to an Announcement of Opportunity which will be distributed in Japan and in ESA member states. However, the participation of co-investigators

References (18)

S.P. Christon
A comparison of the mercury and earth magnetospheres: electron measurements and substorm time scales
Icarus
(1987)
K.-H. Glassmeier
The Hermean magnetosphere and its ionosphere–magnetosphere coupling
Planet. Space Sci.
(1997)
R. Grard et al.
Returns to Mercury: science and mission objectives
Planet. Space Sci.
(2001)
A.E. Potter et al.
Sodium and potassium atmosphere of Mercury
Planet. Space Sci.
(1997)
S.C. Solomon et al.
The MESSENGER mission to Mercury: scientific objectives and implementation
Planet. Space Sci.
(2001)
J.E.P. Connerney et al.
Mercury's magnetic field and interior
B.E. Goldstein et al.
Mercury: magnetospheric processes and the atmospheric supply and loss rates
J. Geophys. Res.
(1981)
R.R. Grail et al.
Rapid acceleration of the polar solar wind
Nature
(1996)
N.F. Ness et al.
Magnetic field observations near Mercury: preliminary results from Mariner 10
Science
(1974)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (39)

Mercury Ion Analyzer (MIA) onboard Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter: MMO
2009, Advances in Space Research
The Mercury Magnetopsheric Orbiter (MMO) is one of the spacecraft of the BepiColombo mission; the mission is scheduled for launch in 2014 and plans to revisit Mercury with modern instrumentation. MMO is to elucidate the detailed plasma structure and dynamics around Mercury, one of the least-explored planets in our solar system. The Mercury Plasma Particle Experiment (MPPE) on board MMO is a comprehensive instrument package for plasma, high-energy particle, and energetic neutral particle atom measurements. The Mercury Ion Analyzer (MIA) is one of the plasma instruments of MPPE, and measures the three dimensional velocity distribution of low-energy ions (from 5 eV to 30 keV) by using a top-hat electrostatic analyzer for half a spin period (2 s). By combining both the mechanical and electrical sensitivity controls, MIA has a wide dynamic range of count rates for the proton flux expected around Mercury, which ranges from 10⁶ to 10¹² cm⁻² s⁻¹ str⁻¹ keV⁻¹, in the solar wind between 0.3 and 0.47 AU from the sun, and in both the hot and cold plasma sheet of Mercury’s magnetosphere. The geometrical factor of MIA is variable, ranging from 1.0 × 10⁻⁷ cm² str keV/keV for large fluxes of solar wind ions to 4.7 × 10⁻⁴ cm² str keV/keV for small fluxes of magnetospheric ions. The entrance grid used for the mechanical sensitivity control of incident ions also work to significantly reduce the contamination of solar UV radiation, whose intensity is about 10 times larger than that around Earth’s orbit.
Characteristics of piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate multilayered detector bombarded with hypervelocity iron particles
2009, Advances in Space Research
A cosmic dust detector is currently being developed using a piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT) element. The characteristics of the multilayered detector (MD), which was composed of one hundred PZT disks, were investigated by bombarding it with hypervelocity iron particles supplied by a Van de Graaff accelerator. It was confirmed that there was a linear relationship between the signal amplitude observed from MD and the momentum of the particles. As compared with the single-layered detector (SD) that was composed of one PZT disk, it was found that the sensitivity of MD was ∼3 times higher than that of SD within the limits of the experimental conditions.
Estimating the impact parameters of cosmic dust particles using a piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate detector
2009, Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics
A cosmic dust detector for installation on a satellite is currently being developed using piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT), which can possess both functions of the collector and the transducer. The characteristics of the PZT detector have been studied by bombarding it with hypervelocity particles supplied by a Van de Graaff accelerator. The front surface of the detector used in this study was covered with a white paint to reduce any increase in the temperature due to the solar radiation. There was a linear relationship between the rise time of the signal produced by the detector and the particle's velocities, which were above 10 km/s on impact. This implies that individual particle velocities on impact can be inferred through the empirical formula derived from the data obtained from the PZT detector.
Attempt to identify a source mechanism of Mercury's sodium exosphere by a spectrometer using Fabry-Perot etalon
2008, Advances in Space Research
The Mercury’s Sodium Atmosphere Spectral Imager (MSASI) on BepiColombo (BC) will address a range of fundamental scientific questions pertaining to Mercury’s exosphere. The measurements will provide new information on regolith–exosphere–magnetosphere coupling as well as new understanding of the dynamics governing the exosphere bounded by the planetary surface, the solar wind and interplanetary space. MSASI is a high-dispersion visible spectrometer working in the spectral range around sodium D2 emission (589 nm). A tandem Fabry–Perot etalon is used to achieve a compact design. We presents a design of the spectral analyzer using Fabry–Perot interferometer. We conclude that: (1) The MSASI optical design is practical and can be implemented without new or critical technology developments; (2) The thermally-tuned etalon design is based on concepts, designs and materials that have good space heritage.
Investigation on piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate detector bombarded obliquely with hypervelocity iron particles
2008, Planetary and Space Science
A cosmic dust detector for use onboard a satellite is currently being constructed from piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT). The characteristics of the PZT detector were studied by bombarding it with hypervelocity iron particles, which were supplied by a Van de Graaff accelerator. There was a linear relationship between the rise time of the signal observed from the detector and the particle's velocity, which was above 10 km/s on impact. It was also found that the rise time was almost independent of the collisional angle between the particles and the PZT surface within the limits of the particle's parameters used in this experiment.
BepiColombo Mercury magnetospheric orbiter design
2008, Acta Astronautica
Citation Excerpt :
Previous papers [1,2] focused on the MMO system and subsystems such as the thermal control, communication, power, attitude control, etc. The thermal design aspects were also summarized in Refs. [3,4] in detail and science payloads were noted in Refs. [5,6]. This paper is considered as an update of Ref. [2].
This paper summarizes the current status of the BepiColombo Mercury magnetospheric orbiter (MMO) spacecraft design. The MMO is a spinning spacecraft of 223 kg mass whose spin axis is nearly perpendicular to the Mercury orbital plane. The current status of the overall MMO system and subsystems such as thermal control, communication, power, etc., are described. The critical technologies are also outlined. Furthermore, the outline of the international cooperation between Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and European Space Agency is also presented.

View all citing articles on Scopus

View full text

The BepiColombo/MMO model payload and operation plan

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Scientific targets

MMO model payload

Data production plan

Summary

Icarus

Planet. Space Sci.

Planet. Space Sci.

Planet. Space Sci.

Planet. Space Sci.

Mercury's magnetic field and interior

Mercury: magnetospheric processes and the atmospheric supply and loss rates

J. Geophys. Res.

Rapid acceleration of the polar solar wind

Nature

Magnetic field observations near Mercury: preliminary results from Mariner 10

Science