| Issue |
Volume 10, 2018
Progress in Flight Dynamics, Guidance, Navigation, and Control – Volume 10
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | 265 - 284 | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/eucass/201810265 | |
| Published online | 08 June 2018 | |
AOCS operations preparation for the BepiColombo mission to mercury
1
ESA/ESOC 5 Robert-Bosch Str., Darmstadt 64293, Germany
2
Terma GmbH 5 Robert-Bosch Str., Darmstadt 64293, Germany
The 2018 ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury features a complex modular design, with two scientific Mercury orbiters and a cruise module. The spacecraft (S/C) and mission design lead to a number of challenges for the attitude and orbit control system (AOCS), including electric propulsion usage during cruise to Mercury, AOCS capability to deal with several S/C configurations, and strict attitude constraints owing to the harsh thermal environment. This paper presents the activities for AOCS operations preparation by ESA/ESOC, covering the current preparation status as well as an outlook on upcoming activities before launch.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).