Gravity Investigations with the MarcoPolo-R Radio Science Experiment RSE
Abstract
The ESA sample return mission MarcoPolo-R is one of the current candidate M3 missions. It will rendezvous with a primitive Near Earth Asteroid (NEA), scientifically characterize it at multiple scales, and return a unique sample to Earth [3] The determination of the global physical properties of the mission target, the Near Earth Asteroid 2008 EV5, is among others one science objective of the MarcoPolo-R mission. In this context one key parameter is the gravity field, especially GM (gravitational constant times the mass) and the low order gravity coefficients C20 and C22 of the asteroid.
- Publication:
-
European Planetary Science Congress
- Pub Date:
- September 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013EPSC....8..640A