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The Dawn Framing Camera

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Abstract

The Framing Camera (FC) is the German contribution to the Dawn mission. The camera will map 4 Vesta and 1 Ceres through a clear filter and 7 band-pass filters covering the wavelengths from the visible to the near-IR. The camera will allow the determination of the physical parameters of the asteroids, the reconstruction of their global shape as well as local topography and surface geomorphology, and provide information on composition via surface reflectance characteristics. The camera will also serve for orbit navigation. The resolution of the Framing Camera will be up to 12 m per pixel in low altitude mapping orbit at Vesta (62 m per pixel at Ceres), at an angular resolution of 93.7 μrad px−1.

The instrument uses a reclosable front door to protect the optical system and a filter-wheel mechanism to select the band-pass for observation. The detector data is read out and processed by a data processing unit. A power converter unit supplies all required power rails for operation and thermal maintenance. For redundancy reasons, two identical cameras were provided, both located side by side on the +Z-deck of the spacecraft. Each camera has a mass of 5.5 kg.

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Abbreviations

ADC:

Analog-Digital Converter

AU:

Astronomical Unit

APID:

Application Process Identifier

ASIC:

Application Specific Integrated Circuit

BFL:

Back Focal Length

CALIOPE:

Calibration Operational Pipeline

CCD:

Charged Coupled Device

CCSDS:

Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems

CDS:

Correlated Double Sampling

CH:

Camera Head

COTS:

Commercial-Off-The-Shelf

CRC:

Cyclic Redundancy Check

DLR:

Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt

DMA:

Direct Memory Access

DN:

Digital Number

DPU:

Data Processing Unit

DSC:

Dawn Science Centre

DTM:

Digital Terrain Model

E-Box:

Electronics Box

EEPROM:

Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory

EGSE:

Electrical Ground Support Equipment

ESA:

European Space Agency

FC:

Framing Camera

FEE:

Front-End Electronics

FIFO:

First In First Out

FM:

Flight Model

FOV:

Field Of View

FPGA:

Field-Programmable Gate Array

GFRP:

Glass Fiber-Reinforced Plastic

GND:

Ground

GRaND:

Gammy Ray and Neutron Detector Instrument

GSEOS:

Ground Support Equipment Operating System

HAMO:

High Altitude Mapping Orbit

HED:

Howardite-Eucrite-Diogenite meteorite

HK:

Housekeeping

HRSC:

High Resolution Stereo Camera

HST:

Hubble Space Telescope

ICO:

Initial Checkout Operations

ID:

Identifier

IDA:

Institute of Computer and Network Engineering

I/F:

Interface

IFOV:

Instantaneous Field Of View

IPS:

Ion Propulsion System

IR:

Infra-Red

JPL:

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

L3:

Level 3

LAMO:

Low Altitude Mapping Orbit

LET:

Linear Energy Transfer

LU:

Latch-Up

MCU:

Mechanism Controller Unit

MIPS:

Million Instructions per Second

MLI:

Multi-Layer Insulation

MMB:

Mass Memory Board

MOC:

Mission Operations Centre

MOSFET:

Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor

MPG:

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

MPS:

Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research

MTF:

Modulation Transfer Function

NIR:

Near Infra-Red

NVRAM:

Non-Volatile Random Access Memory

OCL:

Onboard Command Language

OSIRIS:

Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System

Op-Nav:

Optical Navigation

OSC:

Orbital Sciences Coperation

PC:

Personal Computer

PCB:

Printed Circuit Board

PCU:

Power Converter Unit

PDS:

Planetary Data System

POP:

Persistent Operational Procedures

PROM:

Programmable Read Only Memory

PSF:

Point Spread Function

QM:

Qualification Model

RDF:

Radiation Design Factor

ROLIS:

Rosetta Lander Imaging System

RTEMS:

Real-Time Executive for Multiprocessor Systems

RTL:

Run-Time Library

SASF:

Spacecraft Activity Sequence File

S/C:

Spacecraft

SCET:

Spacecraft Event Time

SDRAM:

Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory

SEU:

Single Event Upset

SIS:

Spacecraft Interface Simulator

SNR:

Signal to Noise Ratio

SoC:

System on Chip

SPARC:

Scalable Processor Architecture

SPIHT:

Set Partitioning In Hierarchical Trees

SRAM:

Static Random Access Memory

SSC:

Single Symbol Correction

S/W:

Software

TC:

Telecommand

TM:

Telemetry

TMM:

Thermal Mathematical Model

TRAP:

Telemetry Relational Archiving and Processing

UCLA:

University of California, Los Angeles

UDP:

User-Defined Program

UIRD:

Unique Interface Definition Document

USAF:

US Air Force

VHDL:

Very High Speed Integrated Circuits Hardware Description Language

VIR:

Visible and Infra-Red Imaging Spectrometer

VMC:

Venus Monitoring Camera

XML:

Extensible Markup Language

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany

    H. Sierks, H. U. Keller, I. Büttner, U. Christensen, R. Enge, P. Gutiérrez Marqués, H. Hartwig, H. Krüger, W. Kühne, T. Maue, A. Nathues, M. L. Richards, S. E. Schröder & I. Szemerey

  2. Institute of Planetary Research, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Berlin, Germany

    R. Jaumann, T. Behnke, U. Carsenty, S. Mottola, T. Roatsch & M. Tschentscher

  3. Institute of Computer and Network Engineering, University of Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany

    H. Michalik, F. Bubenhagen, B. Fiethe & K.-U. Reiche

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  1. H. Sierks
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  2. H. U. Keller
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Correspondence to H. Sierks.

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Sierks, H., Keller, H.U., Jaumann, R. et al. The Dawn Framing Camera. Space Sci Rev 163, 263–327 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-011-9745-4

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