Descripción del proyecto
IAA AIMS TO HAVE AN INTEGRATED VIEW OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM EXPLORATION, FOR THIS, OUR INVOLVEMENT IN SEVERAL SPACE MISSIONS GUARANTEES OUR OBJECTIVES, THE BEPICOLOMBO MISSION WILL BE AMONG THE FIRST MISSIONS TO SERIOUSLY EXPLORE MERCURY, ONE OF THE LAST UNKNOWN REALMS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM, THE IMPORTANCE OF MERCURY STEMS FROM ITS POSITION AS THE INNERMOST PLANET AND FROM ITS UNUSUAL COMPOSITION, A FUNDAMENTAL TASK OF EXPLORATORY SPACE MISSIONS IS TO CHARACTERIZE AND MEASURE THE FIGURE, TOPOGRAPHY, AND SURFACE MORPHOLOGY OF THE TARGET PLANET, A STATE OF THE ART TOOL FOR THIS TASK IS A LASER ALTIMETER BECAUSE IT CAN PROVIDE ABSOLUTE TOPOGRAPHIC HEIGHT AND POSITION WITH RESPECT TO A MERCURY CENTRED CO-ORDINATE SYSTEM, THE TECHNOLOGY OF LASER ALTIMETRY IS NEW IN EUROPE, THE BEPICOLOMBO LASER ALTIMETER (BELA) WILL BE THE FIRST SUCH INSTRUMENT DEVELOPED FOR AN EUROPEAN SPACE MISSION, THE IAA REPRESENTS THE SPANISH PART OF THE CONSORTIUM THAT WILL BUILD SUCH A LASER ALTIMETER, BEING SWITZERLAND AND GERMANY THE OTHER TWO COUNTRIES (PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR NATIONS) WHICH FORM THE CONSORTIUM, THE ROSETTA MISSION AIMS TO STUDY OF THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF PRIMITIVE BODIES OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM AND TO DERIVE A COSMOLOGICAL HISTORY FOR THE SOLAR SYSTEM IN GENERAL, TO ACHIEVE THIS OBJECTIVE THE S/C WILL MAKE FLY-BY OBSERVATIONS OF TWO ASTEROIDS, ORBITAL OBSERVATIONS OF THE COMET 67P/CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO AND CARRY A PROBE FOR IN SITU MEASUREMENTS OF THE COMET SURFACE, AMONG THE INSTRUMENTS ON BOARD THE S/C ARE OSIRIS AND GIADA, TO BOTH OF WHICH, SPAIN IS A MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR, BOTH OF THESE INSTRUMENTS ARE EXHAUSTIVELY DEVOTED TO STUDY THE NUCLEUS, GAS AND DUST COMA, AND THE DYNAMICAL PROPERTIES OF DUST CLOSE TO THE COMET NUCLEUS AS MASS, VELOCITY, MOMENTUM AND FLUX OF THE DUST PARTICLES, THE IAA PARTICIPATES IN THE SCIENTIFIC RETURN OF THE HERSCHEL SPACE OBSERVATORY THROUGH TWO KEY PROGRAMMES: "WATER AND RELATED CHEMISTRY IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM" AND "TNOS ARE COOL", IN THESE PROGRAMMES, WE AIM TO A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF THE OXYGEN SPECIES ABUNDANCES IN THE GIANT PLANETS, TITAN AND MARS, BESIDE AN INDEPTH STUDY OF THE COMETARY OUTGASSING, REGARDING THE TNOS, THE INMEDIATE AIM IS TO BETTER DETERMINE THEIR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES AS SIZE, ALBEDO, DENSITY AND THERMAL PROPERTIES, A NATURAL STEP FORWARD IN THE STUDY OF MINOR BODIES, AFTER THE IN SITU EXPLORATION OF A COMET AND AFTER THE EXPLORATION OF A LARGE POPULATION OF TNOS, IS THE IN SITU EXPLORATION OF AN ASTEROID, THE EASIEST ONES TO REACH ARE THE NEAR EARTH OBJECTS (NEOS), AND THE MISSION MARCO POLO AIMS NOT ONLY TO THIS IN SITU EXPLORATION AND SOMETHING MORE: THE PRINCIPAL SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVE OF THE MARCO POLO MISSION IS TO RETURN UNALTERED NEO MATERIALS, MARCO POLO WILL ALLOW US TO ANALYZE THE SAMPLES IN TERRESTRIAL LABORATORIES, THEREBY OBTAINING MEASUREMENTS THAT CANNOT YET BE PERFORMED FROM A ROBOTIC SPACECRAFT (E,G, DATING THE MAJOR EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF A SAMPLE: LABORATORY TECHNIQUES CAN DETERMINE THE TIME INTERVAL BETWEEN THE END OF NUCLEOSYNTHESIS AND AGGLOMERATION, THE DURATION OF AGGLOMERATION, TIME OF ACCUMULATION, CRYSTALLIZATION AGE, THE AGE OF MAJOR HEATING AND DEGASSING EVENTS, THE TIME OF METAMORPHISM, THE TIME OF AQUEOUS ALTERATION, AND THE DURATION OF EXPOSURE TO COSMIC RADIATION), CURRENTLY, THE IAA IS PARTICIPATING IN THE SCIENCE PAYLOAD DEFINITION THROUGH ITS CO-PI'SHIP OF THE IMAGING SYSTEM OF THE MARCO POLO MISSION (MPCS), MERCUY\TNOS\GIANT-PLANETS\LASER-ALTIMETRY\OPTICAL-CAMERAS\COMETS\ASTEROIDS\ENGINEERING-DEVELOPMENT