Abstract
The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury was launched in October 2018. It includes two scientific Mercury orbiters, flying as a single stack during the seven years interplanetary transfer, and as individual spacecraft operated by their respective space Agencies ESA and JAXA once deployed in their respective scientific orbit around Mercury. Three ground segments are closely collaborating on this mission. The European Space Operations Center of the European Space Agency, in Darmstadt, Germany, responsible for mission operations of the composite stack during the interplanetary transfer and of the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) once at Mercury, the JAXA Sagamihara Space Operation Center (SSOC) in Sagamihara, Japan, responsible for Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO) operations throughout the mission, and the European Space Astronomy Center of the European Space Agency, in Villanueva de la Canada, Spain, responsible for MPO scientific archiving and Mercury science operations. The mission benefits from infrastructure and concepts developed on previous interplanetary missions of ESA and JAXA. However, it also includes specific operational challenges, such as electric propulsion, and a complex Mercury Orbit Insertion sequence, exploiting weak stability boundaries, and interleaving three module separations with 15 chemical propulsion manoeuvers to deliver MPO and MMO in their respective science orbits, requiring specific developments and operational approaches. In view of the nominal mission duration of 8.5 years, the mission also requires the adoption of specific measures for knowledge preservation and long-term maintenance.
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Notes
ECSS stands for European Cooperation for Space Standardization. It is an initiative established to develop a coherent, single set of user-friendly standards for use in all European space activities.
Planetary Science Archive home page: https://psa.esac.esa.int/psa/.
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The BepiColombo mission to Mercury
Edited by Johannes Benkhoff, Go Murakami and Ayako Matsuoka
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Montagnon, E., Budnik, F., Casale, M. et al. BepiColombo Ground Segment and Mission Operations. Space Sci Rev 217, 32 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-021-00805-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-021-00805-y