Italian Spring Accelerometer measurements of unexpected Non Gravitational Perturbation during BepiColombo second Venus swing-by

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Hauptverfasser: Magnafico, Carmelo, De Filippis, Umberto, Santoli, Francesco, Lefevre, Carlo, Lucente, Marco, Lucchesi, David, Fiorenza, Emiliano, Peron, Roberto, Iafolla, Valerio
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Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Magnafico, Carmelo
De Filippis, Umberto
Santoli, Francesco
Lefevre, Carlo
Lucente, Marco
Lucchesi, David
Fiorenza, Emiliano
Peron, Roberto
Iafolla, Valerio
author_facet Magnafico, Carmelo
De Filippis, Umberto
Santoli, Francesco
Lefevre, Carlo
Lucente, Marco
Lucchesi, David
Fiorenza, Emiliano
Peron, Roberto
Iafolla, Valerio
contents The Italian Spring Accelerometer (ISA) is a three axis mass-spring accelerometer, one of the payloads of the BepiColombo joint space mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). At launch in October 2018, BepiColombo started its seven-year cruise as a stack of three different modules, overall named Mercury Composite Spacecraft (MCS). The spacecraft will provide BepiColombo the necessary Delta V to reach Mercury with its electric thrusters and along with one, two and six gravity assists, respectively with Earth, Venus and Mercury. The accelerometer is accommodated on the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) module and, jointly with the Ka-band Transponder (KaT) tracking data, will primarily serve the BepiColombo Radio Science Experiment (BC-RSE). During the second Venus swing-by, strong tidal effect and external perturbations was expected to act on the spacecraft and to become detectable by ISA. The swing-by had a closest approach of about 550 km and the gravity gradient expected on the IDA sensing elements was perfectly measured. Hence, in this paper, the first direct Gravity Gradient effect detection generated by an extraterrestrial body is shown. Nevertheless, around the closest approach, the measurements evidenced a spurious acceleration event lasting for several minutes. This work, exploiting information on the Attitude and Orbit Control System (AOCS) commanded torques, focuses and analyses this ISA acceleration signal, ascribing it to a net force really acting on the MCS spacecraft. Furthermore, using an estimation method, the application point of the force is confined to an area close to the MPO radiator.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_02015
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Italian Spring Accelerometer measurements of unexpected Non Gravitational Perturbation during BepiColombo second Venus swing-by
Magnafico, Carmelo
De Filippis, Umberto
Santoli, Francesco
Lefevre, Carlo
Lucente, Marco
Lucchesi, David
Fiorenza, Emiliano
Peron, Roberto
Iafolla, Valerio
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Space Physics
The Italian Spring Accelerometer (ISA) is a three axis mass-spring accelerometer, one of the payloads of the BepiColombo joint space mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). At launch in October 2018, BepiColombo started its seven-year cruise as a stack of three different modules, overall named Mercury Composite Spacecraft (MCS). The spacecraft will provide BepiColombo the necessary Delta V to reach Mercury with its electric thrusters and along with one, two and six gravity assists, respectively with Earth, Venus and Mercury. The accelerometer is accommodated on the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) module and, jointly with the Ka-band Transponder (KaT) tracking data, will primarily serve the BepiColombo Radio Science Experiment (BC-RSE). During the second Venus swing-by, strong tidal effect and external perturbations was expected to act on the spacecraft and to become detectable by ISA. The swing-by had a closest approach of about 550 km and the gravity gradient expected on the IDA sensing elements was perfectly measured. Hence, in this paper, the first direct Gravity Gradient effect detection generated by an extraterrestrial body is shown. Nevertheless, around the closest approach, the measurements evidenced a spurious acceleration event lasting for several minutes. This work, exploiting information on the Attitude and Orbit Control System (AOCS) commanded torques, focuses and analyses this ISA acceleration signal, ascribing it to a net force really acting on the MCS spacecraft. Furthermore, using an estimation method, the application point of the force is confined to an area close to the MPO radiator.
title Italian Spring Accelerometer measurements of unexpected Non Gravitational Perturbation during BepiColombo second Venus swing-by
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Space Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.02015