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The BepiColombo mission
The BepiColombo mission
BepiColombo is an interplanetary mission lead by the European Space Agency (ESA) in collaboration with the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA). In October 2018, two spacecraft (the european MPO and the japanese MMO) have been launched targeting the planet Mercury, around which they will orbit for 1 year, starting in December 2025.
Prof. Luciano Iess is the Principal Investigator (PI) of the BepiColombo radioscience experiment: MORE.
In this mission, very complex and that will provide a highly valuable scientific return, Italy will play a major role: the Italian Space Agency (ASI) is funding the development of the transponder (the heart of the spacecraft's communication system) and four scientific experiments, among which the radioscience experiment MORE.
The MORE experiment will be also participated by the team lead by prof. Milani (University of Pisa), the team lead by prof. Tortora (University of Bologna), and by several other international research institutes.
The main scientific objectives of MORE are the determination of the Mercury's gravity field, its rotational state and its interior structure; the high-precision estimate of several key parameters of the general relativity theory, as γ, β, e η; and the determination of the spacecraft orbit with an accuracy never achieved before.
Scientific publications
Scientific publications
Iess, L., S. Asmar, and P. Tortora (2009). MORE: An advanced tracking experiment for the exploration of Mercury with the mission BepiColombo. Acta Astronautica 65, 666–675. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2009.01.049
Imperi, L., and L. Iess (2017). The determination of the post-Newtonian parameter γ during the cruise phase of BepiColombo. Classical and Quantum Gravity 34. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6382/aa606d
Imperi, L., L. Iess, and M.J. Mariani (2018). An analysis of the geodesy and relativity experiments of BepiColombo. Icarus 301, 9–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2017.09.008
Cappuccio, P., V. Notaro, A. Di Ruscio, L. Iess, A. Genova, D. Durante, et al. (2020). Report on first inflight data of BepiColombo's Mercury Orbiter Radio-science Experiment, IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems 56. https://doi.org/10.1109/TAES.2020.3008577
Di Stefano, I., P. Cappuccio, and L. Iess (2020). The BepiColombo solar conjunction experiments revisited. Classical and Quantum Gravity 38. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6382/abd301
Iess, L., S.W. Asmar, P. Cappuccio, G. Cascioli, F. De Marchi, et al. (2021). Gravity, Geodesy and Fundamental Physics with BepiColombo’s MORE Investigation. Space Science Reviews 217. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-021-00800-3
Genova, A., H. Hussmann, T. Van Hoolst, D. Heyner, L. Iess, et al. (2021). Geodesy, Geophysics and Fundamental Physics Investigations of the BepiColombo Mission. Space Science Reviews 217. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-021-00808-9
Cappuccio, P., I. Di Stefano, G. Cascioli, and L. Iess (2021). Comparison of light-time formulations in the post-Newtonian framework for the BepiColombo MORE experiment. Classical and Quantum Gravity 38 227001. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6382/ac2b0a
Di Stefano, I., P. Cappuccio, and L. Iess (2023). Precise modeling of non-gravitational accelerations of the spacecraft BepiColombo during cruise phase. Journal of spacecraft and rockets 60. https://doi.org/10.2514/1.A35704
De Filippis, U., C. Lefevre, M. Lucente, C. Magnafico, F. Santoli, P. Cappuccio, et al. (2024). Pseudo-drag-free system simulation for BepiColombo radio science using accelerometer data. Journal of guidance, control and dynamics 47. https://doi.org/10.2514/1.G007916
Cappuccio, P., T. Imamura, I. Doria, S. Chiba, I. Di Stefano, et al. (2024). Probing solar wind velocity from simultaneous superior solar conjunction radio science experiments of BepiColombo and Akatsuki missions. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 533, 1560–1567. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae1929
De Filippis, U., C. Levefre, M. Lucente, C. Magnafico, and F. Santoli (2024). Characterization of the outgassing event during BepiColombo second Venus flyby using Italian Spring Accelerometer data. Acta astronautica 226, 11–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2024.09.062
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