SCOSpy - Version 0.2.1 - User Manual

SCOSpy is a python library for the Satellite Control and Operation System 2000 (SCOS-2000) header written as a hexadecimal string

VIR-IAS-TN-32 - VIRTIS ROSETTA EGSE SW Version 7.5 - Functional Validation

The report describes the validation of the maintenance activity carried out by Techno System Developments on the VIRTIS Rosetta EGSE Software CIG Z571056CC1

VIR-IAS-TN-33 VIRTIS ROSETTA EGSE SW Version 7.6 Functional Validation

The report describes the validation of the maintenance activity carried out by Techno System Developments on the VIRTIS Rosetta EGSE Software CIG Z571056CC1 for the Software version 7.

SOIM User Manual v6.0

This document will describe the Simulator for Operation of Imaging Missions (SOIM) software used to simulate any Imaging System on board of Missions which take advantage of the Spice Kernels (technology). The document will provide documentation and a description of the input and output files. The experience accumulated by INAF in International Space Missions has demonstrated the impact and the scientific return of Imaging tools. In all mission phases, these instruments have required the development of tools to simulate acquisitions, to verify and optimize the observation strategy, and to define the essential parameters for Operations. The Simulator for Operation of Imaging Missions (SOIM) will be a generic software tool for simulating such payloads. It was developed thanks to the contribution of INAF-OAPD; INAF-IAPS; CNR-IFN and will represent a transversal activity to different research lines favoring the optimization of performances and, with the collaboration of the scientific group, the validation of scientific requirements. At the current date the simulator was applied to 5 instruments: -the three Monitor Cameras (MCAM) on board of BepiColombo Mission -the CaSSIS camera onboard of ExoMars 2016 -the instrument Spectrometers and Imagers for MPO BepiColombo Integrated Observatory SYStem (SIMBIO-SYS) onboard of BepiColombo mission

Morphology and dynamics of Venus's southern polar vortex reveal a drifting circulation

This was a last-minute invited contribution to coincide with the publication of the article "Venus’s Southern Polar Vortex Reveals Precessing Circulation" in Science

The Comparative Exploration of the Ice Giant Planets with Twin Spacecraft: Unveiling the History of our Solar System

In the course of the selection of the scientific themes for the second and third L-class missions of the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 program of the European Space Agency, the exploration of the ice giant planets Uranus and Neptune was defined "a timely milestone, fully appropriate for an L class mission". Among the proposed scientific themes, we presented the scientific case of exploring both planets and their satellites in the framework of a single L-class mission and proposed a mission scenario that could allow to achieve this result. In this work we present an updated and more complete discussion of the scientific rationale and of the mission concept for a comparative exploration of the ice giant planets Uranus and Neptune and of their satellite systems with twin spacecraft. The first goal of comparatively studying these two similar yet extremely different systems is to shed new light on the ancient past of the Solar System and on the processes that shaped its formation and evolution. This, in turn, would reveal whether the Solar System and the very diverse extrasolar systems discovered so far all share a common origin or if different environments and mechanisms were responsible for their formation. A space mission to the ice giants would also open up the possibility to use Uranus and Neptune as templates in the study of one of the most abundant type of extrasolar planets in the galaxy. Finally, such a mission would allow a detailed study of the interplanetary and gravitational environments at a range of distances from the Sun poorly covered by direct exploration, improving the constraints on the fundamental theories of gravitation and on the behaviour of the solar wind and the interplanetary magnetic field.Comment: 29 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication on the special issue "The outer Solar System X" of the journal Planetary and Space Science. This article presents an updated and expanded discussion of the white paper "The ODINUS Mission Concept" (arXiv:1402.2472) submitted in response to the ESA call for ideas for the scientific themes of the future L2 and L3 space mission

Chemical Diversity in Protoplanetary Disks and Its Impact on the Formation History of Giant Planets

Giant planets can interact with multiple and chemically diverse environments in protoplanetary discs while they form and migrate to their final orbits. The way this interaction affects the accretion of gas and solids shapes the chemical composition of the planets and of their atmospheres. Here we investigate the effects of different chemical structures of the host protoplanetary disc on the planetary composition. We consider both scenarios of molecular (inheritance from the pre-stellar cloud) and atomic (complete chemical reset) initial abundances in the disc. We focus on four elemental tracers of different volatility: C, O, N, and S. We explore the entire extension of possible formation regions suggested by observations by coupling the disc chemical scenarios with N-body simulations of forming and migrating giant planets. The planet formation process produces giant planets with chemical compositions significantly deviating from that of the host disc. We find that the C/N, N/O, and S/N ratios follow monotonic trends with the extent of migration. The C/O ratio shows a more complex behaviour, dependent on the planet accretion history and on the chemical structure of the formation environment. The comparison between S/N* and C/N* (where * indicates normalisation to the stellar value), constrains the relative contribution of gas and solids to the total metallicity. Giant planets whose metallicity is dominated by the contribution of the gas are characterised by N/O* > C/O* > C/N* and allow for constraining the disc chemical scenario. When the planetary metallicity is instead dominated by the contribution of the solids we find that C/N* > C/O* > N/O*.Comment: 27 pages, 10 figures, 1 table. Published in The Astrophysical Journa

The Test Planning for the SIMBIO-SYS Near Earth Commissioning Phase

In this document we describe all the tests to be performed during the Near Earth Commissioning Phase (NECP) for the Spectrometers and Imagers for MPO BepiColombo Integrated Observatory SYStem (SIMBIO-SYS)

BC-SIM-TR-001 - SIMBIO-SYS NECP Data Produced Analysis

In this document we will describe all the tests performed during the Near Earth Commissioning Phase (NECP) for the Spectrometers and Imagers for MPO BepiColombo Integrated Observatory SYStem (SIMBIO-SYS). For each test will be reported a sheet with the pipeline report and a discussion eventually on the detected anomalies