Abstract | During its long journey to Mercury, Bepi Colombo will fly several times, close to Venus and Mercury. Each of those flybys represents a unique opportunity to study the Venusian and Hermean plasma environments. The Mercury Planetary Plasma Experiment (MPPE) on board the Mio spacecraft, is embedded inside the MMO Sunshield and Interface Structure (MOSIF). The MOSIF acts as a solar protection for Mio but highly limit/obstruct the MPPE instruments field of view (FOV) during its cruise phase. In addition the surface electrostatic charge can directly affect the low energy particle measurement (distortion of the FOV and particle spectrum). An other effect of MOSIF could be to increase the residence time of the outgassing particles (like water) and their chance to be ionized and then detected as low energy ions.
In this work we simulate the interaction of Bepi Colombo spacecraft with its environment during its Venus and Mercury flybys with the Spacecraft Plasma Interaction Software (SPIS). SPIS is a 3D hybrid Particle In Cell code (PIC), able to simulate complex interactions between a plasma and immersed surfaces (taking into account their material properties). By estimating the electric potentials of spacecraft surfaces, we will understand how it affects the MPPE particles measurements at Mio and where low energy particles come from. |
