Measurement and stability of the pointing of the BepiColombo Laser Altimeter under thermal load |
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Authors: | Julien Gouman Thomas Beck Michael Affolter Nicolas Thomas Urs Geissbühler Alain Péteut Timothy Bandy Anthony Servonet Daniele Piazza Karsten Seiferlin Kaustav Ghose |
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Institution: | 1. Physikalisches Institut, Universität Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, 3012 Bern, Switzerland;2. Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen, Switzerland |
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Abstract: | The BepiColombo Laser Altimeter (BELA) has been selected to fly on ESA?s BepiColombo mission to Mercury. The instrument will be the first European laser altimeter designed for interplanetary flight. This paper describes the setup used to characterize the angular movements of BELA under the simulated environmental conditions that the instrument will encounter when orbiting Mercury. The system comprises a laser transmitter and a receiving telescope, which can move with respect to each other under thermal load. Tests performed using the Engineering Qualification Model show that the setup is accurate enough to characterize angular movements of the instrument components to an accuracy of ≈10 μrad. The qualification instrument is thermally stable to operate during all mission phases around Mercury proving that the transmitter and receiver sections will remain within the alignment requirements during its mission. |
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Keywords: | BepiColombo Laser altimeter BELA Thermal vacuum Stability |
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