MORE: an advanced tracking experiment for the exploration of Mercury with the mission BepiColombo.
- Paper number
IAC-06-C1.6.04
- Author
Prof. Luciano Iess, University of Rome "La Sapienza", Italy
- Coauthor
Mr. Sami W. Asmar, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, United States
- Coauthor
Prof. Paolo Tortora, University of Bologna, Italy
- Year
2006
- Abstract
Precise microwave tracking of interplanetary spacecraft has been a crucial tool in solar system exploration. Not only range and range rate measurements are the main observable quantities in spacecraft orbit determination and navigation, but they have been widely used to refine the dynamical model of the solar system and to probe planetary interiors. Thanks to the use of Ka-band and multifrequency radio links, a significant improvement in microwave tracking systems has been demonstrated by the radio science experiments of the Cassini mission to Saturn. The Cassini radio system has been used to carry out the most accurate test of General Relativity to date.
Further developments in the radio instrumentation have been recently started for the MORE experiment, selected for the ESA mission to Mercury, BepiColombo. MORE addresses the mission’s scientific goals in geodesy, geophysics and fundamental physics. In addition, MORE will carry out a navigation experiment, aiming to a precise assessment of the orbit determination accuracies attainable with the use of the novel instrumentation.
The key instrument is a Ka/Ka band digital transponder enabling a high phase coherence (to a level of 10 −15 over 1000 s integration time) between uplink and downlink carriers and supporting a wideband (20 MHz) ranging tone. The onboard instrumentation is complemented by a ground system based upon the simultaneous transmission and reception of multiple frequencies at X and Ka-band. The new wideband ranging system (WBRS) is designed for an end-to-end accuracy of 20 cm using integration times of a few seconds. Two-way range rate measurements are expected to be accurate to 3 micron/s, thanks to nearly complete cancellation or calibration of the propagation noise from interplanetary plasma and troposphere. We review the experimental configuration of the experiment and outline its scientific goals and expected results.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-06-C1.6.04.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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