Author/Authors :
Rothery، نويسنده , , David and Marinangeli، نويسنده , , Lucia and Anand، نويسنده , , Mahesh and Carpenter، نويسنده , , James D. Christensen، نويسنده , , Ulrich and Crawford، نويسنده , , Ian A. and Sanctis، نويسنده , , Maria Cristina De and Epifani، نويسنده , , Elena Mazzotta and Erard، نويسنده , , Stéphane and Frigeri، نويسنده , , Alessandro and Fraser، نويسنده , , George and Hauber، نويسنده ,
Abstract :
We describe the contributions that we expect the BepiColombo mission to make towards increased knowledge and understanding of Mercuryʹs surface and composition. BepiColombo will have a larger and more capable suite of instruments relevant for determination of the topographic, physical, chemical and mineralogical properties of the surface than carried by NASAʹs MESSENGER mission. We anticipate that the insights gained into the planetʹs geological history and its current space weathering environment will enable us to understand the relationships between surface composition and the composition of different types of crust. This will enable estimation of the composition of the mantle from which the crust was derived, and lead to better constraints on models for Mercuryʹs origin and the nature of the material from which it formed.
Keywords :
BepiColombo , Planetary surface , mercury , Planetary composition
