Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufm.p44b..02l&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #P44B-02
Physics
[1221] Geodesy And Gravity / Lunar And Planetary Geodesy And Gravity, [1240] Geodesy And Gravity / Satellite Geodesy: Results, [5417] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Gravitational Fields, [6235] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Mercury
Scientific paper
The MESSENGER spacecraft entered orbit about Mercury in March 2011, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit the innermost planet. The spacecraft is in a highly eccentric, near-polar orbit with an inclination near 82.5 deg., a period of nearly 12 hrs, a periapsis latitude near 60 deg.N, and a periapsis altitude that varies between 200 and 500 km. The spacecraft is tracked by the antennae of the Deep Space Network (DSN), and the X band data have been analyzed to determine spherical harmonic models of the gravity field of Mercury to degree and order 20. The a priori modeling includes the Margot (2010) orientation model for Mercury and the DE421 set of planetary ephemerides. A detailed non-conservative model has been developed to account for the radiation pressure perturbations on the spacecraft, including both the solar radiation pressure and the planetary radiation pressure. This last analysis includes a box-wing model, use of quaternions to model the spacecraft attitude, and a model of the planet's thermal emission. The data have been analyzed primarily in one-day arcs. The data coverage, which now span several Mercury sidereal days, includes direct Doppler observations below 1500 km altitude throughout the northern hemisphere to just south of the equator. In this paper, we discuss the quality of the DSN tracking data and the details of the force and measurement models used in the analyses, and we show how the solutions have been refined as additional data have been obtained. We show the stability of the solutions for the lower-degree harmonics, including C20, C22, S22, and C30.
Lemoine Frank G.
Mazarico Erwan
Perry Mark E.
Rowlands David. D.
Smith Douglas E.
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