Search Publications
Investigation of X-band and Ka-band amplitude scintillation based on measurement data collected during ESA's BepiColombo superior solar conjunction campaign
Chen, Shun-Ping; Lanucara, Marco; Villalvilla, Jose
Solar phase scintillation and solar amplitude scintillation are fundamentally important in deep space mission operations for designing a communication system capable of transmitting signals when the signal path is close to the Sun. The ESA's BepiColombo measurement data were analyzed in a previous paper in terms of the power spectral density of th…
The BepiColombo Laser Altimeter (BELA): a post-launch summary
Thomas, Nicolas; Hussmann, Hauke; Lara, Luisa M.
We provide a brief description of the BepiColombo Laser Altimeter experiment for the joint ESA-JAXA mission to Mercury, BepiColombo. The text describes the main elements of the instrument and discusses several of the problems encountered during the instrument development. The actions taken to mitigate the issues are also described and the resultin…
Radiometric calibration of the SIMBIO-SYS STereo imaging Channel
Cremonese, G.; Da Deppo, V.; Naletto, G. +11 more
The STereo imaging Channel (STC) is a double wide-angle camera developed to be one of the channels of the SIMBIO-SYS instrument onboard of the ESA BepiColombo mission to Mercury. STC main goal is to map in 3D the whole Mercury surface. The geometric and radiometric responses of the STC Proto Flight model have been characterized on-ground during th…
Development and qualification of the Feed-Select Mechanism for the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager on-board Solar Orbiter
Hirzberger, Johann; Woch, Joachim; Staub, Jan +5 more
The Solar Orbiter Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (SO/PHI) will provide maps of the magnetic vector and of the line-of-sight velocities in the solar photosphere. For reaching its science goals, SO/PHI is equipped with two telescopes: the high resolution channel (HRT) and the full disk channel (FDT). Since both optical channels are fed into a …
In-orbit performance of the LISA Pathfinder drag-free and attitude control system
Grzymisch, J.; Brandt, N.; Schleicher, A. +5 more
LISA Pathfinder is a technology demonstrator mission that was funded by the European Space Agency and that was launched on December 3, 2015. LISA Pathfinder has been conducting experiments to demonstrate key technologies for the gravitational wave observatory LISA in its operational orbit at the L1 Lagrange point of the Earth-Sun system until fina…
Calibration OGSEs for multichannel radiometers for Mars atmosphere studies
Jiménez, J. J.; J Álvarez, F.; Gonzalez-Guerrero, M. +5 more
This work describes several Optical Ground Support Equipment (OGSEs) developed by INTA (Spanish Institute of Aerospace Technology—Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial) for the calibration and characterization of their self-manufactured multichannel radiometers (solar irradiance sensors—SIS) developed for working on the surface of Mars and st…
MICROSCOPE mission: drag-free and attitude control system expertise activities toward the scientific team
Robert, Alain; Guidotti, Pierre-Yves; Prieur, Pascal +2 more
Microscope is a CNES-ESA-ONERA-CNRS-OCA-DLR-ZARM mission dedicated to the test of the Equivalence Principle with an improved accuracy of 10-15. The 300 kg drag-free microsatellite was launched on April 25th 2016 into a 710 km dawndusk sun-synchronous orbit for a 2-year mission. To comply with stringent requirements, the drag-free and at…
Fourier transform spectrometers for remote sensing of planetary atmospheres and surfaces
Korablev, Oleg; Grigoriev, Alexey; Ignatiev, Nikolay +14 more
In planetary research, Fourier transform infrared spectrometers (FTIR) solve a number of important scientific goals related both to the atmosphere and to the surface sounding. For remote orbital measurements, these goals are the thermal sounding of the atmosphere using, in particular, the 15-µm CO2 band, sensitive detections of minor ga…
Systematic design methods of robust and structured controllers for satellites. Application to the refinement of Rosetta's orbit controller
Falcoz, Alexandre; Pittet, Christelle; Bennani, Samir +3 more
In this paper, the capability of nonsmooth optimisation techniques to solve complex control problems with implementation issues is addressed. {H}_{∞}/ µ design methods are analysed to enhance the current Airbus Defence and Space industrial development process. In the first instance, a reference µ-synthesis controller that achieves the …
ESA multibody simulator for spacecrafts' ascent and landing in a microgravity environment
Toso, Mario; Pennestrì, Ettore; Rossi, Valerio
The investigation of planets, moons and small bodies, including comets and asteroids can contribute substantially to our understanding of the formation and history of the solar system. In situ observations by landers play an important role in this field: for example, the Rosetta Lander Philae has been the first spacecraft to accomplish a soft touc…