Rationale for BepiColombo Studies of Mercury’s Surface and Composition

Journal
Date Issued
2020
Author(s)
Rothery, David Alan
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Alemanno, Giulia
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Barraud, Oceane
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Besse, Sebastien
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Brunetto, Rosario
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Bunce, Emma
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Byrne, Paul
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Charlier, Bernard
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Cornet, Thomas
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D’Amore, Mario
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Doressoundiram, Alain
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Ferranti, Luigi
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Grande, M.
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Helbert, Jorn
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Heyner, D.
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Hiesinger, Harald
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Hussmann, H.
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Hyodo, R.
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Kohout, T.
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Kozyrev, A.
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Litvak, M.
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Malakhov, A.
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Malliband, C.
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Mancinelli, Paolo
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Martikainen, J.
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Martindale, A.
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Maturilli, Alessandro
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Mitrofanov, I.
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Mokrousov, M.
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Morlok, Andreas
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Muinonen, Karri
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Namur, Olivier
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Owens, A.
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Nittler, Larry R.
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Oliveira, Joana S.
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Pegg, David L.
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Penttilä, Antti
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Quarati, F.
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Sanin, Anton
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Schulz, Rita
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Stangarone, C.
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Stojic, A.
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Tretiyakov, V.
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Väisänen, T.
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Varatharajan, I.
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Weber, I.
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Wright, Jack
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Wurz, P.
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DOI
Description
The work leading to this paper has been funded by many agencies in many countries over several years. Rothery, Massironi and several others are supported by EU Horizon 2020 grant 776276 ‘Planmap’, and the lead author was previously supported by various grants from the Science and Technology Funding Council and the UK Space Agency. Several co-authors were supported by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) under ASI-INAF agreement 2017-47-H.0. Research at the University of Helsinki was supported, in part, by the Academy of Finland grant No. 1325805. Heyner was supported by the German Ministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie and the German Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt under contract 50 QW 1501. The MGNS instrument team in Russia is funded by Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, grant AAAA-A18-118012290370-6. MESSENGER data used in figures in this paper are available thanks to NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington. We thank Nancy L. Chabot and Clark R. Chapman for careful reviews that helped us to correct some previously unnoticed misconceptions.
Abstract
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.
Volume
216
Issue
4
Start page
66
Uri
Url
Issn Identifier
0038-6308
Ads BibCode
2020SSRv..216...66R
Rights
open.access
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