The Global Mapping of Mercury’s Surface From SIMBIO-SYS Onboard BepiColombo: VIS-NIR Hyperspectral Coverage by the VIHI Channel

One of the main goals of SIMBIO-SYS, the Spectrometer and Imagers for Mercury Planet Orbiter (MPO) BepiColombo (BC)-Integrated Observatory SYStem, on board ESA’s BC mission is to image the entire surface of Mercury. During the first year of operations, the visible and infrared hyperspectral imager (VIHI), one of the three optical channels of SIMBIO-SYS, will be used in accordance with the scientific requirements of the mission, to build a global map of the planet in the spectral range 0.4–
$2.0~\mu \text{m}$
with a spectral sampling of 12.5 nm/band and a spatial resolution of 400 m/px. This map will be employed to derive mineralogy and surface regolith physical properties by means of spectrophotometric analyses. For the purpose of reaching this goal, a deterministic method able to predict the best GM strategy for VIHI in terms of time sequences, coverage, spatial sampling, integration/repetition times, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) optimization, and data redundancy is discussed. Starting from these criteria, the determination of the timeline containing the sequence of the instrumental telecommands is derived from the orbital kernels of the spacecraft and within the limitation of the allocated data volume which poses strict operational constraints on the data generation and redundancy.