BepiColombo – Mercury Swing-Bys

Abstract The BepiColombo spacecraft was launched on 20 October 2018 from the European spaceport in French Guyana and is currently on its way to Mercury. On its way, the spacecraft will swing-by Mercury six times in its stacked configuration, before releasing the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO) and the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) in their corresponding orbits around the target planet. Introduction Mercury is in many ways a very different planet from what we were expecting. On 20 October 2018 the BepiColombo spacecraft [1] started its 7 year journey to the innermost terrestrial planet to investigate on the fundamental questions about its evolution, composition, interior, magnetosphere, and exosphere. BepiColombo is a joint project between the Euro- pean Space Agency (ESA) and the Japanese Aero- space Exploration Agency (JAXA). The Mission con- sists of two orbiters, the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO). From their dedicated orbits the two space- craft will be studying the planet and its environment. The mission has been named in honor of Giuseppe (Bepi) Colombo (1920&#8211;1984), who was a brilliant Italian mathematician, who made many significant contributions to planetary research and celestial mechanics. During the cruise phase, the spacecraft flies in a stacked configuration: the MMO and MPO are mounted ontop of the Mercury Transfer Module (MTM). As a consequence, most remote sensing instruments onboard the MPO are mounted towards the MTM and have a fully obstructed field-of-view. The MMO instrumentation is shielded by a protection shield (MOSIF) and several instruments still await the deployment on measurement booms. Despite the reduced instrument availability, scientific and engineering operations will be scheduled during the cruise phase, especially during the swing-bys. Mercury Swing-bys Following the Earth and two Venus swing-bys, six Mercury swing-bys are foreseen from October 2021 until 9 January 2025. The poster will discuss the flyby geometries and potential operation opportunities, in comparison with the three MESSENGER Mercury swing-bys from 2008 and 2009 [2][3]. References: [1] Benkhoff, J., et al. (2010) Planet. Space Sci. 58, 2-20. [2] Baker, D.N. et al. (2011) Planet. Space Sci 59, 2066-2074. [3] McNutt, R.L. et al. (2010), Acta Astronautica V67, Iss 7-8, p 681-687

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BepiColombo – Status and first Results from Activities during Cruise and the Earth flyby

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-11528 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Johannes Benkhoff ◽

Joe Zender ◽

Go Murakami

Keyword(s):

State Of The Art ◽

European Space Agency ◽

Terrestrial Planet ◽

First Year ◽

Joint Project ◽

The Earth ◽

Space Agency ◽

First Results ◽

French Guyana ◽

The Individual

Mercury is a mysterious planet in many ways very different from what scientist were expecting. BepiColombo was launched on 20 October 2018 the BepiColombo from the European spaceport in French Guyana and is now on route to Mercury to unveil Mercury&#8217;s secrets. BepiColombo with its state of the art and very comprehensive payload will perform measurements to increase our knowledge on the fundamental questions about Mercury&#8217;s evolution, composition, interior, magnetosphere, and exosphere. BepiColombo is a joint project between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and consists of two orbiters, the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (Mio).&#160;The BepiColombo spacecraft is during its 7-year long journey to the innermost terrestrial planet in a so-called &#8216;stacked&#8217; configuration: The Mio and the MPO are connected to each other, and stacked on-top of the Mercury Transfer Module (MTM). Only in late 2025, the &#8216;stack&#8217; configuration is abandoned and the individual elements spacecraft are brought in to their final Mercury orbit: 480x1500km for MPO, and 590x11640km for Mio. The foreseen orbits of the MPO and Mio will allow close encounters of the two spacecraft throughout the mission. The mission has been named in honor of Giuseppe (Bepi) Colombo (1920&#8211;1984), who was a brilliant Italian mathematician, who made many significant contributions to planetary research and celestial mechanics.On its way BepiColombo has several opportunities for scientific observations - during the cruise into the inner solar system and during nine flybys (one at Earth, two at Venus and six at Mercury). However, since the spacecraft is in a stacked configuration during the flybys only some of the &#160;&#160;instruments on both spacecraft will perform scientific observations. In early April of 2020 BepiColombo will flyby Earth and later in October the first Venus flyby will follow.A status of the mission and instruments and first results of measurements taken during the Earth flyby and the first year in cruise will be given.

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BepiColombo – Status and first Results from Activities during Cruise

10.5194/epsc2020-8 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Johannes Benkhoff ◽

Go Murakami ◽

Joe Zender

Keyword(s):

Solar System ◽

State Of The Art ◽

European Space Agency ◽

Terrestrial Planet ◽

Joint Project ◽

The Earth ◽

Space Agency ◽

First Results ◽

French Guyana ◽

The Individual

BepiColombo was launched on 20 October 2018 the BepiColombo from the European spaceport in French Guyana and is now on route to Mercury to unveil Mercury&#8217;s secrets. BepiColombo with its state of the art and very comprehensive payload will perform measurements to increase our knowledge on the fundamental questions about Mercury&#8217;s evolution, composition, interior, magnetosphere, and exosphere. BepiColombo is a joint project between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and consists of two orbiters, the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (Mio).&#160; The BepiColombo spacecraft is during its 7-year long journey to the innermost terrestrial planet in a so-called &#8216;stacked&#8217; configuration: The Mio and the MPO are connected to each other, and stacked on-top of the Mercury Transfer Module (MTM). Only in late 2025, the &#8216;stack&#8217; configuration is abandoned and the individual elements spacecraft are brought in to their final Mercury orbit: 480x1500km for MPO, and 590x11640km for Mio. The foreseen orbits of the MPO and Mio will allow close encounters of the two spacecraft throughout the mission. The mission has been named in honor of Giuseppe (Bepi) Colombo (1920&#8211;1984), who was a brilliant Italian mathematician, who made many significant contributions to planetary research and celestial mechanics. On its way BepiColombo has several opportunities for scientific observations - during the cruise into the inner solar system and during nine flybys (one at Earth, two at Venus and six at Mercury). However, since the spacecraft is in a stacked configuration during the flybys only some of the &#160;&#160;instruments on both spacecraft will perform scientific observations. In April 2020 BepiColombo has passed Earth. The next planetary flyby will be on 15th October 2020 at Venus. A status of the mission and instruments and a summary of first results from measurements taken during the Earth flyby and during the first two years in cruise will be given. &#160;

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Cruise and flyby operations of BepiColombo – first results and planned activities

10.5194/epsc2021-360 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Johannes Benkhoff

Keyword(s):

Gamma Ray ◽

State Of The Art ◽

European Space Agency ◽

Gamma Ray Bursts ◽

Polar Orbit ◽

Joint Project ◽

Space Agency ◽

Science Operations ◽

First Results ◽

French Guyana

BepiColombo was launched on 20 October 2018 from the European spaceport Kourou in French Guyana and is now on route to Mercury to unveil Mercury&#8217;s secrets. BepiColombo with its state of the art and very comprehensive payload will perform measurements to increase our knowledge on the fundamental questions about Mercury&#8217;s evolution, composition, interior, magnetosphere, and exosphere. BepiColombo is a joint project between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and consists of two orbiters, the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (Mio).&#160; On its way BepiColombo will travel 18 times around the Sun until the spacecraft will be put into an polar orbit around Mercury. During its long way through the inner solar system, BepiColombo will perform nine flybys (one at Earth, two at Venus and six at Mercury). However, since the spacecraft is in a stacked configuration during the flybys only some of the instruments on both spacecraft will perform scientific observations. In addition there are plenty of opportunities for further science operations (testing Einstein&#8217;s theory during solar conjunctions, listening to gamma ray bursts, or investigation of the solar environment). A status of the mission and instruments, science operations plans during cruise, and first results of measurements taken in the first three years since launch will be given.

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