BepiColombo cruise science: overview of the mission contribution to heliophysics
Beatriz Sánchez-Cano (University of Leicester)
Lina Z. Hadid (Sorbonne Université, Université Paris-Saclay, Paris, Observatoire de Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), École polytechnique)
Sae Aizawa (Sorbonne Université, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), Observatoire de Paris, École polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Université Paris-Saclay, Paris)
Go Murakami (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency)
Yumi Bamba (National Institute of Information and Communications Technology)
Shota Chiba (Nagoya University, University of Tokyo)
Takuya Hara (University of California)
Daniel Heyner (Technical University of Braunschweig)
F.G.A. Quarati (Gonitec B.V., TU Delft - RST/Luminescence Materials)
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Abstract
BepiColombo, the joint ESA/JAXA mission to Mercury, was launched in October 2018 and is scheduled to arrive at Mercury in November 2026 after an 8-year cruise. Like other planetary missions, its scientific objectives focus mostly on the nominal, orbiting phase of the mission. However, due to the long duration of the cruise phase covering distances between 1.2 and 0.3 AU, the BepiColombo mission has been able to outstandingly contribute to characterise the solar wind and transient events encountered by the spacecraft, as well as planetary environments during the flybys of Earth, Venus, and Mercury, and contribute to the characterisation of the space radiation environment in the inner Solar System and its evolution with solar activity. In this paper, we provide an overview of the cruise observations of BepiColombo, highlighting the most relevant science cases, with the aim of demonstrating the importance of planetary missions to perform cruise observations, to contribute to a broader understanding of Space Weather in the Solar System, and in turn, increase the scientific return of the mission.
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