Abstract:The ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission will provide simultaneous measurements from two spacecraft, offering an unprecedented opportunity to investigate magnetospheric The BepiColombo mission to Mercury Edited by Johannes Benkhoff, Go Murakami and Ayako Matsuoka B A. Milillo
“…1 . For a detailed description of the Hermean environment and the great improvement in its understanding expected from the BepiColombo mission (see Milillo et al 2020 ). Fig.…”
Section: Serena Science Objectivesmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Simultaneous Mio measurements of local plasma distribution inside the magnetosphere will permit reconstruction of the plasma distribution and dynamics on a more extended scale, leading to a deeper understanding of the governing processes (Milillo et al 2020 ).…”
The ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury will provide simultaneous measurements from two spacecraft, offering an unprecedented opportunity to investigate magnetospheric and exospheric particle dynamics at Mercury as well as their interactions with solar wind, solar radiation, and interplanetary dust. The particle instrument suite SERENA (Search for Exospheric Refilling and Emitted Natural Abundances) is flying in space on-board the BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and is the only instrument for ion and neutral particle detection aboard the MPO. It comprises four independent sensors: ELENA for neutral particle flow detection, Strofio for neutral gas detection, PICAM for planetary ions observations, and MIPA, mostly for solar wind ion measurements. SERENA is managed by a System Control Unit located inside the ELENA box. In the present paper the scientific goals of this suite are described, and then the four units are detailed, as well as their major features and calibration results. Finally, the SERENA operational activities are shown during the orbital path around Mercury, with also some reference to the activities planned during the long cruise phase.
“…1 . For a detailed description of the Hermean environment and the great improvement in its understanding expected from the BepiColombo mission (see Milillo et al 2020 ). Fig.…”
Section: Serena Science Objectivesmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Simultaneous Mio measurements of local plasma distribution inside the magnetosphere will permit reconstruction of the plasma distribution and dynamics on a more extended scale, leading to a deeper understanding of the governing processes (Milillo et al 2020 ).…”
The ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury will provide simultaneous measurements from two spacecraft, offering an unprecedented opportunity to investigate magnetospheric and exospheric particle dynamics at Mercury as well as their interactions with solar wind, solar radiation, and interplanetary dust. The particle instrument suite SERENA (Search for Exospheric Refilling and Emitted Natural Abundances) is flying in space on-board the BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and is the only instrument for ion and neutral particle detection aboard the MPO. It comprises four independent sensors: ELENA for neutral particle flow detection, Strofio for neutral gas detection, PICAM for planetary ions observations, and MIPA, mostly for solar wind ion measurements. SERENA is managed by a System Control Unit located inside the ELENA box. In the present paper the scientific goals of this suite are described, and then the four units are detailed, as well as their major features and calibration results. Finally, the SERENA operational activities are shown during the orbital path around Mercury, with also some reference to the activities planned during the long cruise phase.
“…12 MGF science targets and operation modes along the sketches of Mio orbits. A more precise calculations of the orbits are shown in Milillo et al (2020) data, modeling of the magnetosphere and each plasma process therein, extension of the theoretical studies, revisiting Mariner 10 and MESSENGER data, and close collaboration with the numerical simulations will continue prior to the arrival at Mercury. by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.…”
The fluxgate magnetometer MGF on board the Mio spacecraft of the BepiColombo mission is introduced with its science targets, instrument design, calibration report, and scientific expectations. The MGF instrument consists of two tri-axial fluxgate magnetometers. Both sensors are mounted on a 4.8-m long mast to measure the magnetic field around Mercury at distances from near surface (initial peri-center altitude is 590 km) to 6 planetary radii (11640 km). The two sensors of MGF are operated in a fully redundant way, each with its own electronics, data processing and power supply units. The MGF instrument samples the magnetic field at a rate of up to 128 Hz to reveal rapidly-evolving magnetospheric dynamics, among them magnetic reconnection causing substorm-like disturbances, field-aligned currents, and ultra-low-frequency waves. The high time resolution of MGF is also helpful to study solar wind processes (through measurements of the interplanetary magnetic field) in the inner heliosphere. The MGF instrument firmly corroborates measurements of its companion, the MPO magnetometer, by performing multi-point observations to determine the planetary internal field at higher multi-pole orders and to separate temporal fluctuations from spatial variations.
“…The BepiColombo project is a Euro-Japanese joint mission for the investigation of Mercury, the innermost planet in our solar system (Benkhoff et al 2010. The Mio (Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO)) spacecraft is a part of this project (Hayakawa et al 2004;Yamakawa et al 2008;Murakami et al 2020, this issue), and will enable a comprehensive study of the Hermean environment, which is strongly influenced by the Sun, by combined observations with the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) (Milillo et al 2010(Milillo et al , 2020. The spacecraft was successfully launched on October 2018 as a unified cruise composite system, and is presently on a long cruise with the arrival to Mercury planned at the end of 2025.…”
This paper describes the design of MEFISTO (Mercury Electric Field In-Situ Tool) and WPT (Wire Probe Antenna) electric field sensors for Plasma Wave Investigation (PWI) on the BepiColombo Mio spacecraft (Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter, MMO). The two sensors will enable the first observations of electric fields, plasma waves and radio waves in and around the Hermean magnetosphere and exosphere. MEFISTO and WPT are dipole antennas with 31.6 m tip-to-tip length. Each antenna element has a spherical probe at each end of the wire (15 m length). They are extended orthogonally in the spin plane of the spacecraft and enable measurements of the electric field in the frequency range of DC to 10 MHz by the connection to two sets of receivers, EWO for a lower frequency range and SORBET for higher frequencies. In the initial operations after the launch (20 Oct. 2018), we succeeded to confirm the health of both antennas and to release the launch lock of the WPT. After Mercury orbit insertion planned at the end of 2025, both sensors will be fully deployed and activate full operations of the PWI electric field measurements.
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