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Space Science Reviews

The Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer is a highly novel instrument that is designed to map Mercury’s elemental composition from orbit at two angular resolutions. By observing the fluorescence X-rays generated when solar-coronal X-rays and charged particles interact with the surface regolith, MIXS will be able to measure the atomic composition of the upper ∼10-20 μm of Mercury’s surface on the day-side. Through precipitating particles on the night-side, MIXS will also determine the dynamic interaction of the planet’s surface with the surrounding space environment.MIXS is composed of two complementary elements: MIXS-C is a collimated instrument which will achieve global coverage at a similar spatial resolution to that achieved (in the northern hemisphere only – i.e. ∼ 50 – 100 km) by MESSENGER; MIXS-T is the first ever X-ray telescope to be sent to another planet and will, during periods of high solar activity (or intense precipitation of charged particles), reveal the X-ray flux fro...

Space Science Reviews

BepiColombo has a larger and in many ways more capable suite of instruments relevant for determination of the topographic, physical, chemical and mineralogical properties of Mercury's surface than the suite carried by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft. Moreover, BepiColombo's data rate is substantially higher. This equips it to confirm, elaborate upon, and go beyond many of MESSENGER's remarkable achievements. Furthermore, the geometry of BepiColombo's orbital science campaign, beginning in 2026, will enable it to make uniformly resolved observations of both northern and southern hemispheres. This will offer more detailed and complete imaging and topographic mapping, element mapping with better sensitivity and improved spatial resolution, and totally new mineralogical mapping.

Planetary and Space Science, 2010

Scheduled for launch on board the BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) in 2014, the Mercury Radiometer and Thermal Infrared Spectrometer (MERTIS) is an innovative instrument for studying the surface composition and mineralogy of planet Mercury. MERTIS combines an uncooled grating push broom IR-spectrometer (TIS) with a radiometer (TIR), which will operate in the wavelength region of 7-14 and 7-40 mm, respectively. The spatial resolution of the MERTIS observations will be about 500 m globally and better than 500 m for approximately 5-10% of the surface. The thermal infrared range offers unique diagnostic capabilities to study the surface composition of Mercury. In particular, feldspars can easily be detected and characterized, because they show several diagnostic spectral signatures in the 7-14 mm range: the Christiansen feature, reststrahlen bands, and the transparency feature. In addition, MERTIS will allow the identification and mapping of elemental sulfur, pyroxenes, olivines, and other complex minerals. The scientific objectives of MERTIS include: (1) characterization of Mercury's surface composition, (2) identification of rock-forming minerals, (3) mapping of the surface mineralogy, and (4) study of surface temperature variations and the thermal inertia. In preparation for the MERTIS data interpretation, we are performing spectral measurements of appropriate analogue materials in the Planetary Emissivity Laboratory (PEL) and are building a spectral library (Berlin Emissivity Database (BED)) of these materials for a variety of grain sizes.

Planetary and Space …, 2010

Planetary and Space Science, 2010

BepiColombo is an interdisciplinary mission to explore Mercury, the planet closest to the sun, carried out jointly between the European Space Agency and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency. From dedicated orbits two spacecraft will be studying the planet and its environment. The scientific payload of both spacecraft will provide the detailed information necessary to understand the origin and evolution of the planet itself and its surrounding environment. The scientific objectives focus on a global characterization of Mercury through the investigation of its interior, surface, exosphere and magnetosphere. In addition, instrumentation onboard BepiColombo will be used to test Einstein's theory of general relativity. Major effort was put into optimizing the scientific return of the mission by defining a payload complement such that individual measurements can be interrelated and complement each other. This paper gives an in-depth overview of BepiColombo spacecraft composite and the mission profile. It describes the suite of scientific instruments on board of the two BepiColombo spacecraft and the science goals of the mission. Launch Service Segment Ground segment J The Ground Stations that are provided by ESA, NASA/DSN and JAXA. J The Mission Operations Centres (MOC) that are located in ESOC, Darmstadt, for MPO and in JAXA, Sagamihara, Japan, for MMO. J The Science Ground Segment Centres (SGS) that are located in ESAC, Villafranca, Spain, for MPO and in JAXA, Sagamihara, Japan, for MMO. J The Communications Network that links the centres and stations together.

IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2000

Visible and infrared hyperspectral imager (VIHI) is 6 one of the three optical heads of the Spectrometers and Imagers 7 for MPO BepiColombo Integrated Observatory SYStem (SIM-8 BIO-SYS) experiment onboard European Space Agency's Bepi-9 Colombo cornerstone mission to Mercury. The other two optical Q1 10 heads of SIMBIO-SYS are a stereo camera and a high-resolution 11 image camera [1]. The experiment is designed to scan the Hermean 12 surface from a polar orbit with the three channels to map the 13 physical, morphological, tectonic, and compositional properties 14 of the planet. The main scientific objectives of SIMBIO-SYS are 15 the study of Mercury's surface geology and stratigraphy, the 16 surface composition, the regolith properties, the crustal differ-17 entiation, impact, and volcanic processes. The VIHI experiment 18 uses a high-performance optical layout (Schmidt telescope and 19 spectrometer in Littrow configuration) which allows investigat-20 ing the 400-2000-nm spectral range with 256 spectral channels 21 (6.25 nm/band sampling). The instrument has an instrument field 22 of view (FOV) of 250 µrad corresponding to a spatial scale of 23 about 100 m/pixel at periherm and 375 m at apoherm. The 24 instrument operates in pushbroom configuration, sampling the 25 surface of Mercury with an FOV of 64 × 0.25 mrad. The main 26 technical challenges of this experiment are focal-plane design 27 (cadmium-mercury-telluride thinned to improve the efficiency 28 at visible wavelengths), short dwell time (from about 40 ms at 29 equator to about 100 ms at poles), thermal control, mechanical 30 miniaturization, radiation hardening, high data rate, and com-31 pression. A description of the internal calibration unit concept and 32 functionalities is given. 33 ). L. Tommasi, I. Ficai Veltroni, and M. Cosi are with the Selex-Galileo

It can be assumed that the composition of Mercury’s thin gas envelope (exosphere) is related to thecomposition of the planets crustal materials. If this relationship is true, then inferences regarding the bulkchemistry of the planet might be made from a thorough exospheric study. The most vexing of allunsolved problems is the uncertainty in the source of each component. Historically, it has been believedthat H and He come primarily from the solar wind, while Na and K originate from volatilized materialspartitioned between Mercury’s crust and meteoritic impactors. The processes that eject atoms andmolecules into the exosphere of Mercury are generally considered to be thermal vaporization, photonstimulateddesorption (PSD), impact vaporization, and ion sputtering. Each of these processes has its owntemporal and spatial dependence. The exosphere is strongly influenced by Mercury’s highly ellipticalorbit and rapid orbital speed. As a consequence the surface undergoes large fluctuations i...

Advances in Space Research, 1997

Any futum mission to Mercury or the Moon should include an X-my spectrometer in order to address fmKRmental questions ofphmemryorigin. InthecaseofMercury,wherenodirectgeochemicalmeasuremen ts exist, such measuremen tsarecrucial in the undemtandmg of the origin of Mercury and the early solar system. For the Moon, where actual surface samples are available, more complete geochemical mapping is crucial in the assessment of the potential for future development of resources and pmnanent bases. of) 1997 C'OSPAR. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. Orbital X-my detectors measure emission induced by the solar high energy flux incident on planetary surfaces. Chamcmristic lines generated for a number of elements are of sufficient intensity to allow measuremen t by orbital detectors. The X-my instrumentation we propose for these experiments, which is being flown or developed for current space missions, would consist of an array of solid state Si PIN detectors in the case of a lunar mission, and a multi-wire divided chamber propornonal counter in the case of a Mercury mission. In both cases, one pinhole size Si PIN detector would act as a solar monitor. The spin-smbibxui orbiter proposed for launch in the first or second decade of the twenty first century as part of the ESA's Horizon 2000-plus plan is considered the nominal mission design for the target Mercury. ln the case of the Moon, we consider a generic three-axis stabilized polar orbiter at 100 km. Model spectra have been generated and integration times and spatial resolutions estimated for a variety of rock types which could be found on Mercury or the Moon, including ANT Suite materials (anorthosite, anorthositic gabbro, and troctolite), a variety of basalts, and enstatite chondrites in the case of Mercury. Calculation indicate that Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Ti, Fe maps could be generated by nominal one to two year missions in polar orbit, and could determine the overall distribution of major rock types observed or proposed on either body early in such a mission.

Journal of Applied Remote Sensing, 2008

The MERTIS instrument is a state of the art imaging spectrometer in the TIR range onboard ESA's Bepi Colombo mission to the planet Mercury. MERTIS has four science goals: the study of Mercury's surface composition, identification of rock-forming minerals, mapping of the surface mineralogy, and the study of surface temperature variations and of the thermal inertia. The instrument is designed to achieve a signal-to-noise-ratio above 100 in the 7-14 µm range with a spectral channel width of 90 nm and a nominal spatial ground resolution of 500 m within the complex thermal and radiation environment of Mercury.

Soft X-Ray and EUV Imaging Systems II, 2001

We describe HERMES (High Energy Remote-Sensing of Mercury's Surface), a novel X-ray imaging spectrometer for potential accommodation in the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) component of ESA's BepiColombo mission to Mercury.