Evaluating the performance of the MErcury Radiometer and Thermal Infrared imaging Spectrometer (MERTIS) after the Moon and the first Venus flyby

Abstract

The ESA-JAXA BepiColombo Mercury mission was launched in October 2018. It performed successful flybys of the Earth-Moon system on April 10, 2020 and of Venus on October 15, 2020 during which the MERTIS instrument operated. MERTIS obtained a total of 1.2 million spectra during the Moon flyby from a distance of more than 700000km. Venus observations started at a distance of more than 1.3 Mio km recording more than 3 million spectra. For reference at Mercury MERTIS will observe the planet from a distance of less than 1500km. These data and the Near-Earth commissioning show that MERTIS performance exceeds requirements.