Planetary Radio Interferometry and Doppler Experiment (PRIDE) of the JUICE Mission

Planetary Radio Interferometry and Doppler Experiment (PRIDE) is a multi-purpose experimental technique aimed at enhancing the science return of planetary missions. The technique exploits the science payload and spacecraft service systems without requiring a dedicated onboard instrumentation or imposing on the existing instrumentation any...

Decoupled and coupled moons’ ephemerides estimation strategies application to the JUICE mission

When reconstructing natural satellites' ephemerides from space missions' tracking data, the dynamics of the spacecraft and natural bodies are often solved for separately, in a decoupled manner. Alternatively, the ephemeris generation and spacecraft orbit determination can be performed concurrently. This method directly maps the available data...

Analytical framework for mutual approximations: Derivation and application to Jovian satellites

Context. The apparent close encounters of two satellites in the plane of the sky, called mutual approximations, have been suggested as a different type of astrometric observation to refine the moons' ephemerides. The main observables are then the central instants of the close encounters, which have the advantage of being free of any scaling...

Laser and radio tracking for planetary science missions—a comparison

At present, tracking data for planetary missions largely consists of radio observables: range-rate (Doppler), range and angular position (VLBI/Δ DOR). Future planetary missions may use Interplanetary Laser Ranging (ILR) as a tracking observable. Two-way ILR will provide range data that are about 2 orders of magnitude more accurate than radio...