Mission,System Design and Payload Aspects of ESA's Mercury Cornerstone Mission

Details Mission,System Design and Payload Aspects of ESA's Mercury Cornerstone Mission Mission,System Design and Payload Aspects of ESA's Mercury Cornerstone Mission

Sep 1999

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1999dps....31.2107f&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #31, #21.07

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Aim of this paper is to summarise the 1-year study performed by Alenia Aerospazio in close co-operation with the European Space Agency, on the Mercury Cornerstone System and Technology Study, as a part of Horizon 2000+ Scientific Programme plan. ESA's definition study towards a mission to Mercury conceives the launch of a S/C in 2009, on a two to three years journey, plus a one-year scientific observations and data take. The mission's primary objectives are manyfolded, aiming at approaching basic scientific questions on the origin and evolution of Mercury: identify and map the chemical and mineral composition of the surface, measure the topography of surface landforms, define the gravitational field, investigate particles and magnetic fields. The mission is also intended to resolve the librational state of the planet, in a system experiment requiring high accuracy inertial attitude (arcsecond level) and orbit (m-level) reconstitution. This experiment will allow to infer whether Mercury has a molten core, which is crucial to theories of magnetic field generation, and theories of the thermal history of terrestrial type planets. A hard-lander is planned to perform in-situ surface geochemical analysis. The mission is expected to provide scientists with a global portrait of Mercury returning about 1200 Gbits of scientific data, during a 1-year observation phase. The crucial aspects of the spacecraft design have to do with the high-temperature and high-radiation environment. Thermal control is achieved by a combination of orbit selection, attitude law, and special design provisions for IR shielding and HT insulation. Ad-hoc design provisions are envisaged for power and antenna mechanisms. Though the conceptual objectives of this industrial study focused on system architectures and enabling technologies for a "Cornerstone" class mission, in this paper emphasis is given on the scientific payload aspects.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Mission,System Design and Payload Aspects of ESA's Mercury Cornerstone Mission does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Mission,System Design and Payload Aspects of ESA's Mercury Cornerstone Mission, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Mission,System Design and Payload Aspects of ESA's Mercury Cornerstone Mission will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1555484