Imaging Mercury Surface : the SIMBIO-SYS Experiment for the BepiColombo Mission

During its three fly-bys, the last in 1975, Mariner 10 obtained the only coverage at medium- low resolution allowing the mapping of about 45% of the Hermean surface. The next mission to Mercury, Messenger (NASA), will arrive at Mercury in 2011, 36 year after Mariner. The ESA cornerstone mission to Mercury, designed in cooperation with Japan, will be launched in 2013. It is named BepiColombo in honour of prof. Giuseppe Colombo, one of the European pioneers in Space research. BepiColombo is the most complex and capable of the missions to the inner planet of the Solar System designed so far. The main scientific objectives of the mission are the study and analysis of the surface, interior and exosphere of Mercury and the verification of general relativity and alternative theories of gravity. SIMBIO-SYS (Spectrometer and Imaging for MPO BepiColombo Integrated Observatory SYStem) is an instrument suite selected as part of the scientific payload for this fundamental mission, with a High Resolution Imaging Channel (HRIC), a STereo imaging Channel (STC) and a VIsual and Infrared Hyperspectral Imager (VIHI) channel, sharing a common main electronics and power 707/1202 June 25, 2006 12:26 AOGS05 Proceedings: Trim Size: 5.5in x 9.5in Aogscd AOGS 2006 2006 Asia Oceania Geosciences Society, Singapore supply.