BepiColombo - Mission Overview and Science Goals

BepiColombo is a joint mission between the European Space Agency, ESA, and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA, to perform a comprehensive exploration of Mercury. Launched on $20^{\mathrm{th}}$ 20 th October 2018 from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, the spacecraft is now en route to Mercury.Two orbiters have been sent to Mercury and will be put into dedicated, polar orbits around the planet to study the planet and its environment. One orbiter, Mio, is provided by JAXA, and one orbiter, MPO, is provided by ESA. The scientific payload of both spacecraft will provide detailed information necessary to understand the origin and evolution of the planet itself and its surrounding environment. Mercury is the planet closest to the Sun, the only terrestrial planet besides Earth with a self-sustained magnetic field, and the smallest planet in our Solar System. It is a key planet for understanding the evolutionary history of our Solar System and therefore also for the question of how the Earth and our Planetary System were formed.The scientific objectives focus on a global characterization of Mercury through the investigation of its interior, surface, exosphere, and magnetosphere. In addition, instrumentation onboard BepiColombo will be used to test Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Major effort was put into optimizing the scientific return of the mission by defining a payload such that individual measurements can be interrelated and complement each other.

Fungal Biomarkers Stability in Mars Regolith Analogues after Simulated Space and Mars-like Conditions

The discovery of life on other planets and moons in our solar system is one of the most important challenges of this era. The second ExoMars mission will look for traces of extant or extinct life on Mars. The instruments on board the rover will be able to reach samples with eventual biomarkers until 2 m of depth under the planet’s surface. This exploration capacity offers the best chance to detect biomarkers which would be mainly preserved compared to samples on the surface which are directly exposed to harmful environmental conditions. Starting with the studies of the endolithic meristematic black fungus Cryomyces antarcticus, which has proved its high resistance under extreme conditions, we analyzed the stability and the resistance of fungal biomarkers after exposure to simulated space and Mars-like conditions, with Raman and Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry, two of the scientific payload instruments on board the rover.

The Louisiana Space Consortium Student Sounding Balloon Program

Since the fall of 2003 the Louisiana Aerospace Catalyst Experiences for Students (LaACES) program has been providing university students a two semester project that culminates with the flight of a scientific balloon experiment. During the first semester students complete the Student Ballooning Course (SBC) which teaches basic skills necessary to develop a working scientific payload. The SBC consists of a series of lectures and activities providing instruction in electronics, programming, project management, balloon payload design, and introductory circuit assembly. The SBC introduces the BalloonSat, a sub-assembly designed at LSU for LaACES which contains a microcontroller, real-time clock and a four channel analog-to-digital converter. The second semester is spent on the design, development, testing and calibration of the payloads. Upon completion of the Flight Readiness Review, students travel to the NASA Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF) in Palestine, Texas for integration, launch, recovery and science presentations. A flight capable Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) radio beacon armed with GPS and command capable cut down was developed to track the balloon during flight and to cut-down the payloads. Tracking vehicles are outfitted with radios tuned to APRS frequency and laptops displaying maps of the payload location. Here we describe LaACES; program development, tools and technologies, implementation, program, management issues and flight experiences.

The high sensitivity accelerometer ISA during the BepiColombo spacecraft Earth flyby: data analysis, lessons learned, and expected signals for the next

<p>ISA (Italian Spring Accelerometer) is a high sensitivity, relative, mass-spring accelerometer. It flies as scientific payload on-board  the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO), module of BepiColombo ESA mission to Mercury. The accelerometer is sensitive to any acceleration, greater than 2*10<sup>-8</sup> ms<sup>-2</sup>Hz<sup>-1/2</sup>, that changes  the spacecraft motion from a pure free fall: the, so called, Non Gravitational Perturbations (NGP). ISA data will be added, at Mercury, to the orbit determination estimation in order to help reconstructing the orbit and to make the MPO an a-posteriori free-fall satellite.</p> <p>After the first commissioning phase, performed in between November 2018 - August 2019, and that allowed to verify the functionality of the instrument itself, the first direct verification of the correct behaviour of the system was carried out during the BepiColombo Earth Flyby. Indeed,  the spacecraft crossed the planet Earth shadow during the flyby and the direct Solar Radiation Pressure (SRP), the main contribution of NGP accelerations, dropped suddenly, marking a clear leap (gap)  in the gathered data. The scientific team compared, on the base of the satellite surface exposition and radiative characteristics, the observed “drop” in the acceleration, once removed  the on-board disturbances and inertial accelerations due to spacecraft rotations. In the talk, other ISA data recorded during the Earth Flyby are reported and expected signals for the upcoming Venus#2 Flyby and Mercury #1 Flyby are presented.  </p>

Complex analysis of the middle-latitude ionosphere parameters during the geomagnetic storm at Jan, 20, 2010 based on the DEMETER satellite data analysed using DIAS Software

In the Institute of Space Techniques and Technologies of the National Center of Space Research and Technology (Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan) the DIAS (Detection of Ionosphere Anomalies Software) was developed and used for scientific research. The software was designed for ionosphere anomalies detection, identifying and analyzing from satellite spectral and wave data from scientific payload installed on the DEMETER spacecraft. The main task of DIAS Software is to provide the researcher with a convenient tool for detection and identifying of the sources of electromagnetic radiation, disturbances of the ionic and electronic component of the ionosphere, and other ionosphere parameters from satellite data. Using this Software, a complex research of the state of the medium-latitude ionosphere during a geomagnetic storm on January 10, 2010 was done. Processing and analysis of the electric and magnetic components of the field in ULF, ELF and VLF band is carried out; as well as temperature, velocity and density of ionic and electronic plasma components and fluxes of energetic electrons at satel lite altitude during a storm.

ISA, a High Sensitivity Accelerometer in the Interplanetary Space

ISA (Italian Spring Accelerometer) is a high sensitivity accelerometer flying, as scientific payload, on-board one of the two spacecraft (the Mercury Planetary Orbiter) of BepiColombo, the first ESA mission to Mercury. The first commissioning phase (performed in the period November 2018 - August 2019) allowed to verify the functionality of the instrument itself as well as of the related data handling and archiving system. Moreover, the acceleration measurements gathered in this time frame allow to envisage the potentiality of such an instrument as a high-accuracy monitor of the spacecraft mechanical environment.

Numerical Simulation of the Air Cooling System for Scientific Payload Rack on a Space Station

The space scientific payload rack is a multifunctional experimental platform, and the requirements of the environmental temperature index are different for diversified experimental modules inside. The air cooling system is an important part of the rack thermal control system. A new type of air cooling system with small size and flexible arrangement is proposed in this paper, that is, micro air ducts with pinhole-sized air vents. The rack physical models of new and traditional air cooling modes are established, respectively. The numerical simulation of the inner air flow is carried out by Ansys Fluent CFD software (Ansys Inc., Canonsburg, PA, USA), which verifies that compared with the traditional method, the temperature field and flow field of the new air cooling method are more uniform, and the heat sources located at the edge of the rack can also be cooled better.

Scientific Co-operative Rover with Artificial Intelligence for Futuristic Scientific Experiments on Moon

<p>With recent scientific experiments carried out and results have shown an immense studies in<br />operation in the complex lunar environment and exploiting the moon base as a scientific platform<br />for both research and major challenges in exploration. Notion Robotics Lab proposes a highly<br />advanced lunar lander to prepare future missions on moon. The scientific areas for investigation<br />on the lunar lander include the radiation environmental and its effect, dust, plasma, the most<br />important being the properties of moon dust and its effect on human intervention. Notion<br />Robotics Lab will propose a payload which interfaces the information and the boundary<br />conditions. This paper discusses the scientific objectives for the futuristic mission which<br />emphasizes human robot exploration and builds a prototype scientific payload to be part of the<br />mission and also design of scientific instruments.<br />Notion Robotics Lab has developed the sophisticated autonomous co-operative rovers with<br />multiple intelligence systems to study life on lunar base and capable of handling multiple<br />decisions without human interference. This rover will be built as per the map of the terrains in<br />the lunar base thus operating different tasks. With advancement of different payloads and<br />scientific instruments the rover may able to map the large tracts of the surface thus do complex<br />tasks and experiments. Notion Robotics Lab plans to execute with the partnership with<br />Universities and Space Agencies thus proposing broader experiments in futuristic lunar mission.<br />Keywords:- Autonomous Co-operative Rover, Artificial Intelligence, Scientific Instruments,<br />Understanding Life, Lunar Lander</p>

The Lunar Lander Neutron and Dosimetry (LND) Experiment on Chang’E 4

Chang’E 4 is the first mission to the far side of the Moon and consists of a lander, a rover, and a relay spacecraft. Lander and rover were launched at 18:23 UTC on December 7, 2018 and landed in the von Kármán crater at 02:26 UTC on January 3, 2019. Here we describe the Lunar Lander Neutron & Dosimetry experiment (LND) which is part of the Chang’E 4 Lander scientific payload. Its chief scientific goal is to obtain first active dosimetric measurements on the surface of the Moon. LND also provides observations of fast neutrons which are a result of the interaction of high-energy particle radiation with the lunar regolith and of their thermalized counterpart, thermal neutrons, which are a sensitive indicator of subsurface water content.