Gravity, Geodesy and Fundamental Physics with BepiColombo’s MORE Investigation
L. Iess, S. W. Asmar, Paolo Cappuccio, Gael Cascioli, Fabrizio De Marchi, Ivan di Stefano, Antonio Genova, Neil Ashby, Jean‐Pierre Barriot, Peter Bender, Catia Benedetto, James S. Border, Frank Budnik, S. Ciarcia, Thibault Damour, V. Dehant, G. Di Achille, A. Di Ruscio, A. Fienga, Roberto Formaro, S. A. Klioner, A. S. Konopliv, A. Lemaı̂tre, Francesco Longo, M. Mercolino, G. Mitri, Virginia Notaro, A. Olivieri, Meegyeong Paik, Alessandra Palli, Giulia Schettino, Daniele Serra, Lorenzo Simone, Giacomo Tommei, Paolo Tortora, Tim Van Hoolst, David Vokrouhlický, M. M. Watkins, Xiaoping Wu, Marco Zannoni
Abstract
Abstract The Mercury Orbiter Radio Science Experiment (MORE) of the ESA mission BepiColombo will provide an accurate estimation of Mercury’s gravity field and rotational state, improved tests of general relativity, and a novel deep space navigation system. The key experimental setup entails a highly stable, multi-frequency radio link in X and Ka band, enabling two-way range rate measurements of 3 micron/s at nearly all solar elongation angles. In addition, a high chip rate, pseudo-noise ranging system has already been tested at 1-2 cm accuracy. The tracking data will be used together with the measurements of the Italian Spring Accelerometer to provide a pseudo drag free environment for the data analysis. We summarize the existing literature published over the past years and report on the overall configuration of the experiment, its operations in cruise and at Mercury, and the expected scientific results.