一种新型多普勒噪声抑制技术对BepiColombo任务无线电科学实验的性能提升

在欧洲空间局和日本宇宙开发机构联合开展的BepiColombo水星任务中,将开展水星轨道器无线电科学实验,包括估计水星的引力场及其旋转状态,并对广义相对论进行验证。目前地面系统和星上设备的主流配置可以在无线电科学实验中建立X/X、X/Ka和Ka/Ka多个频段的链路,测速精度可达3 um/s（1 000 s积分）,测距精度为20 cm。提出了基于时延机械噪声对消技术提高无线电科学实验性能的方案。时延机械噪声对消技术需要处理在两个测站不同时刻的测量数据,一个测站实施双向多普勒测距,对另一个单收测站的要求较为严格,该测站需要具有较好的对流层条件。这种方法能够显著降低Ka频段双向链路的主要测量噪声,包括由对流层和天线机械系统震动引起的噪声。我们给出了端到端的仿真性能,并估计了在使用时延机械噪声对消技术前提下的水星引力场和旋转状态。考虑使用NASA位于美国本土戈尔德斯敦的DSS-25天线或欧空局位于阿根廷马拉圭的DSA-3天线作为双程测量站,并考虑使用位于智力的APEX天文观测天线作为单收站。分析结果表明在最好的噪声条件下,使用DSA-3天线作为双程测量站时,时延机械噪声对消技术可将待估计的全局和局部参数的估计精度提升一倍。对于无线电科学实验的目标,这一可能的性能提升对行星地质物理学很有意义,它将有益于研究水星内部的结构。     

Observation of Mercury’s sodium tail using Fabry–Perot Interferometer

We observed sodium emission from Mercury’s atmosphere using a Fabry–Perot Interferometer at Haleakala Observatory on June 14, 2006. The Fabry–Perot Interferometer was used as a wavelength-tunable filter. The spectra of the surface reflection were subtracted from the observed spectra because sodium emission is contaminated by the surface reflection of Mercury. The image obtained in our observation shows the sodium exosphere extended to the anti-solar direction. The lifetime of a sodium atom was estimated to be 1.6 × 10⁴ to 1.9 × 10⁵ s with an error by a factor of 3–4.     

Mercury’s Surface Composition and Character as Measured by Ground-Based Observations

Mercury’s surface is thought to be covered with highly space-weathered silicate material. The regolith is composed of material accumulated during the time of planetary formation, and subsequently from comets, meteorites, and the Sun. Ground-based observations indicate a heterogeneous surface composition with SiO₂ content ranging from 39 to 57 wt%. Visible and near-infrared spectra, multi-spectral imaging, and modeling indicate expanses of feldspathic, well-comminuted surface with some smooth regions that are likely to be magmatic in origin with many widely distributed crystalline impact ejecta rays and blocky deposits. Pyroxene spectral signatures have been recorded at four locations. Although highly space weathered, there is little evidence for the conversion of FeO to nanophase metallic iron particles (npFe⁰), or “iron blebs,” as at the Moon. Near- and mid-infrared spectroscopy indicate clino- and ortho-pyroxene are present at different locations. There is some evidence for no- or low-iron alkali basalts and feldspathoids. All evidence, including microwave studies, point to a low iron and low titanium surface. There may be a link between the surface and the exosphere that may be diagnostic of the true crustal composition of Mercury. A structural global dichotomy exists with a huge basin on the side not imaged by Mariner 10. This paper briefly describes the implications for this dichotomy on the magnetic field and the 3 : 2 spin : orbit coupling. All other points made above are detailed here with an account of the observations, the analysis of the observations, and theoretical modeling, where appropriate, that supports the stated conclusions.     

Mercury’s Atmosphere: A Surface-Bounded Exosphere

The existence of a surface-bounded exosphere about Mercury was discovered through the Mariner 10 airglow and occultation experiments. Most of what is currently known or understood about this very tenuous atmosphere, however, comes from ground-based telescopic observations. It is likely that only a subset of the exospheric constituents have been identified, but their variable abundance with location, time, and space weather events demonstrate that Mercury’s exosphere is part of a complex system involving the planet’s surface, magnetosphere, and the surrounding space environment (the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field). This paper reviews the current hypotheses and supporting observations concerning the processes that form and support the exosphere. The outstanding questions and issues regarding Mercury’s exosphere stem from our current lack of knowledge concerning the surface composition, the magnetic field behavior within the local space environment, and the character of the local space environment.     

Remote estimation of the structure of the surface layer of Mercury

Results of the optical observations of Mercury and the Moon confirm the close similarity of photometric properties of the bodies. Undoubtedly, the surface of Mercury, which is subjected to the same processes, is covered by a mantle of shattered rocks – the regolith. The structure of the reflecting layer determines the photometric and polarization characteristics of the surface of a planetary body. Despite the general similarity of the integral optical properties of the surfaces of Mercury and the Moon, specific characteristics of the media of these celestial bodies manifest themselves as identifiable differences in the details of the measured parameters: Mercury’s regolith is smoother than of the Moon, probably contains a greater fines fraction, and has greater maturity.     

Current status of the BepiColombo/MMO spacecraft design

This paper shows the current baseline of the conceptual design of the BepiColombo/MMO (mercury magnetospheric orbiter) spacecraft, which is conducted by the ISAS Mercury Exploration Working Group. The MMO is a spinning spacecraft of 200 kg mass whose spin axis is nearly perpendicular to the Mercury orbital plane. The current status of the overall MMO system and subsystems such as thermal control, communication, power, etc. are described. The latest status of the development of critical technologies for the MMO and the outline of the international cooperation between ESA and ISAS are also presented.     

Electromagnetic Induction Effects and Dynamo Action in the Hermean System

Embedded in a large mass density and strong interplanetary magnetic field solar wind environment and equipped with a magnetic field of minor strength, planet Mercury exhibits a small magnetosphere vulnerable to severe solar wind buffeting. This causes large variations in the size of the magnetosphere and its associated currents. External fields are of far more importance than in the terrestrial case and of a size comparable to any internal, dynamo-generated field. Induction effects in the planetary interior, dominated by its huge core, are thought to play a much more prominent role in the Hermean magnetosphere compared to any of its companions. Furthermore, the external fields may cause planetary dynamo amplification much as discussed for the Galilean moons Io and Ganymede, but with the ambient field generated by the dynamo and its magnetic field-solar wind interaction.     

The Geology of Mercury: The View Prior to the MESSENGER Mission

Mariner 10 and Earth-based observations have revealed Mercury, the innermost of the terrestrial planetary bodies, to be an exciting laboratory for the study of Solar System geological processes. Mercury is characterized by a lunar-like surface, a global magnetic field, and an interior dominated by an iron core having a radius at least three-quarters of the radius of the planet. The 45% of the surface imaged by Mariner 10 reveals some distinctive differences from the Moon, however, with major contractional fault scarps and huge expanses of moderate-albedo Cayley-like smooth plains of uncertain origin. Our current image coverage of Mercury is comparable to that of telescopic photographs of the Earth’s Moon prior to the launch of Sputnik in 1957. We have no photographic images of one-half of the surface, the resolution of the images we do have is generally poor (∼1 km), and as with many lunar telescopic photographs, much of the available surface of Mercury is distorted by foreshortening due to viewing geometry, or poorly suited for geological analysis and impact-crater counting for age determinations because of high-Sun illumination conditions. Currently available topographic information is also very limited. Nonetheless, Mercury is a geological laboratory that represents (1) a planet where the presence of a huge iron core may be due to impact stripping of the crust and upper mantle, or alternatively, where formation of a huge core may have resulted in a residual mantle and crust of potentially unusual composition and structure; (2) a planet with an internal chemical and mechanical structure that provides new insights into planetary thermal history and the relative roles of conduction and convection in planetary heat loss; (3) a one-tectonic-plate planet where constraints on major interior processes can be deduced from the geology of the global tectonic system; (4) a planet where volcanic resurfacing may not have played a significant role in planetary history and internally generated volcanic resurfacing may have ceased at ∼3.8 Ga; (5) a planet where impact craters can be used to disentangle the fundamental roles of gravity and mean impactor velocity in determining impact crater morphology and morphometry; (6) an environment where global impact crater counts can test fundamental concepts of the distribution of impactor populations in space and time; (7) an extreme environment in which highly radar-reflective polar deposits, much more extensive than those on the Moon, can be better understood; (8) an extreme environment in which the basic processes of space weathering can be further deduced; and (9) a potential end-member in terrestrial planetary body geological evolution in which the relationships of internal and surface evolution can be clearly assessed from both a tectonic and volcanic point of view. In the half-century since the launch of Sputnik, more than 30 spacecraft have been sent to the Moon, yet only now is a second spacecraft en route to Mercury. The MESSENGER mission will address key questions about the geologic evolution of Mercury; the depth and breadth of the MESSENGER data will permit the confident reconstruction of the geological history and thermal evolution of Mercury using new imaging, topography, chemistry, mineralogy, gravity, magnetic, and environmental data.     

MESSENGER and the Chemistry of Mercury’s Surface

The instrument suite on the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft is well suited to address several of Mercury’s outstanding geochemical problems. A combination of data from the Gamma-Ray and Neutron Spectrometer (GRNS) and X-Ray Spectrometer (XRS) instruments will yield the surface abundances of both volatile (K) and refractory (Al, Ca, and Th) elements, which will test the three competing hypotheses for the origin of Mercury’s high bulk metal fraction: aerodynamic drag in the early solar nebula, preferential vaporization of silicates, or giant impact. These same elements, with the addition of Mg, Si, and Fe, will put significant constraints on geochemical processes that have formed the crust and produced any later volcanism. The Neutron Spectrometer sensor on the GRNS instrument will yield estimates of the amount of H in surface materials and may ascertain if the permanently shadowed polar craters have a significant excess of H due to water ice. A comparison of the FeO content of olivine and pyroxene determined by the Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer (MASCS) instrument with the total Fe determined through both GRNS and XRS will permit an estimate of the amount of Fe present in other forms, including metal and sulfides.     

四极－十六极分区式线型阱中汞离子囚禁仿真研究

利用SIMION软件建立了四极-十六极分区式线型离子阱系统模型，在此基础上仿真模拟了汞离子在四极阱和十六极阱中被囚禁时的第一稳定区，并分析了离子在不同阱中的运动特性。研究了汞离子云在分区式阱中的囚禁体积和速度分布，以及在不同囚禁区域之间的穿梭过程。模拟得出了稳态情况下分区式阱中不同囚禁区域的粒子数密度分布，验证了分区式离子阱中离子云被连续囚禁、穿梭时粒子数衰减和补偿。同时，根据以上数据分析讨论了汞离子囚禁时的多普勒效应，估算了基于此分区式离子阱的汞离子微波钟的性能水平。