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The BepiColombo Mission, an interdisciplinary cornerstone mission developed in collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA), will be launched in July 2014 towards Mercury from Kourou using an Ariane 5 rocket. Mission operations from launch to arrival at Mercury, and of the European orbiter afterwards, will be responsibility of the European Space Operations Center (ESOC), located in Darmstadt (Germany). As in any other ESA scientific mission, a Mission Planning System will be used during the routine science phase to merge science operations requests with spacecraft commands generated at ESOC and generate a valid and conflict-free set of telecommands for uplink to the spacecraft. However, differently from previous ESA interplanetary missions, the complex operations of the composite spacecraft will also require the use of a Mission Planning System during the long interplanetary cruise. Furthermore, for routine science operations, a higher level of integration between the spacecraft and science planning centers is required than on previous ESA missions. This paper describes the BepiColombo mission planning drivers and concept, both for cruise and routine science operations at Mercury, defining the management approach to critical resources and constraints, in particular on the interface between the spacecraft and the science planning centers. The approach to the use of automated planning processes in cruise is analysed, showing how commonalities with the routine science phase are exploited. The effort associated to the approach described in this paper is justified by the unique characteristics of the BepiColombo mission and spacecraft. This concept should allow a smooth transition from cruise to routine science phases and optimization of science operations despite the constraints imposed by the spacecraft design.

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