Computer Science
Scientific paper
Apr 2003
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003eaeja.....4214s&link_type=abstract
EGS - AGU - EUG Joint Assembly, Abstracts from the meeting held in Nice, France, 6 - 11 April 2003, abstract #4214
Computer Science
Scientific paper
A number of questions about Mercury shall be answered by means of the Radio Science Experiments on board the BepiColombo spacecraft. Among them: the existence of completely decoupled inner core and solid surface, the rotation state of the planet, the static and dynamic gravitational field. The achievement of these science goals depends mainly on the type and accuracy of the tracking and on-board measurement techniques used. Very precise range and range-rate tracking data from the Earth will be used together with on-board accelerometer data and the observation of landmarks on the surface of Mercury. This paper presents the achievable accuracy in the knowledge of gravitational field coefficients up to degree and order 20 and the k2 Love number as a function of the measurements accuracy and the type of orbit. The determination of the rotation state, in terms of obliquity and libration motion of the planet with respect to the spin orbit resonance could be achieved by means of optical measurements and information obtained from the gravitational field. The importance of the gravitational field knowledge in order to determine the rotation state of the planet is explained and results are presented. The 3/2 resonance of the planet spin motion with respect to the orbital motion around the Sun makes the observability of the libration motion by optical measurements dependent of the orbit orientation. Results on this topic will be presented in this paper. The expected science return in terms of gravitational field and rotation state accuracy is computed by using the Gravity and Rotation State Estimation Software Tool for Solar System Bodies (GREST), a software tool developed by DEIMOS Space under ESA/ESOC contract.
Belló M.
Jehn Rüdiger
Sánchez Nadia
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