Zero-g positioning for the BepiColombo ISA accelerometer

Fiorenza, Emiliano; Lucente, M.; Lefevre, Carlo; Santoli, Francesco; Iafolla, V.

doi:10.1016/j.sna.2016.01.036

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 12 publications

(16 reference statements)

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“…The assembly of the ISA instrument consists of three mono-axial accelerometers, arranged to form an orthogonal reference frame within the MPO spacecraft (Fiorenza et al 2016). Each sensor is manufactured from a single piece of aluminium Al7075, carved by a milling machine, to obtain a proof mass (i.e., the sensing element) suspended on an external frame through a tiny foil-shaped spring (∼140 µm in thickness) as shown in Fig.…”

Section: Italian Spring Accelerometer (Isa)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This spring-mass system is a mechanical oscillator with a natural frequency of ∼3.6 Hz. ISA is designed to measure acceleration signals in the frequency range of 3×10 −5 -10 −1 Hz and with a maximum amplitude of 3×10 −6 m s −2 , enabling accuracies up to 10 −8 m s −2 (Iafolla et al 2010;Fiorenza et al 2016).…”

Section: Italian Spring Accelerometer (Isa)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Geodesy, Geophysics and Fundamental Physics Investigations of the BepiColombo Mission

et al. 2021

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In preparation for the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury, thematic working groups had been established for coordinating the activities within the BepiColombo Science Working Team in specific fields. Here we describe the scientific goals of the Geodesy and Geophysics Working Group (GGWG) that aims at addressing fundamental questions regarding Mercury’s internal structure and evolution. This multidisciplinary investigation will also test the gravity laws by using the planet Mercury as a proof mass. The instruments on the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO), which are devoted to accomplishing the GGWG science objectives, include the BepiColombo Laser Altimeter (BELA), the Mercury orbiter radio science experiment (MORE), and the MPO magnetometer (MPO-MAG). The onboard Italian spring accelerometer (ISA) will greatly aid the orbit reconstruction needed by the gravity investigation and laser altimetry. We report the current knowledge on the geophysics, geodesy, and evolution of Mercury after the successful NASA mission MESSENGER and set the prospects for the BepiColombo science investigations based on the latest findings on Mercury’s interior. The MPO spacecraft of the BepiColombo mission will provide extremely accurate measurements of Mercury’s topography, gravity, and magnetic field, extending and improving MESSENGER data coverage, in particular in the southern hemisphere. Furthermore, the dual-spacecraft configuration of the BepiColombo mission with the Mio spacecraft at higher altitudes than the MPO spacecraft will be fundamental for decoupling the internal and external contributions of Mercury’s magnetic field. Thanks to the synergy between the geophysical instrument suite and to the complementary instruments dedicated to the investigations on Mercury’s surface, composition, and environment, the BepiColombo mission is poised to advance our understanding of the interior and evolution of the innermost planet of the solar system.

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Section: Italian Spring Accelerometer (Isa)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Italian Spring Accelerometer (Isa)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Geodesy, Geophysics and Fundamental Physics Investigations of the BepiColombo Mission

et al. 2021

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“…A detailed description of the working principle of accelerometers developed for BepiColombo can be found in [6]. In [7] can be found further details on the triaxial ISA accelerometer and the first measurements from the satellite in-flight towards Mercury.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Calibration of high accuracy accelerometers for ESA missions BepiColombo and JUICE at INRIM

Astrua

Pisani

Santiano

et al. 2023

Meas. Sci. Technol.

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High sensitive triaxial accelerometers are used in several space missions to measure the non-gravitational accelerations acting on the spacecraft. Among these, the capacitive accelerometers developed for ESA missions JUICE and BepiColombo were designed to measure accelerations of the order of 3∙10-6 m/s2 with an accuracy level of 300 ppm in the frequency range (3·10-5 - 0.1) Hz. Despite the signal to be be measured is of the same order of magnitude of the seismic noise on the earth, an accurate on-ground calibration is needed.The facility set-up at INRIM to this purpose is based on a simple principle: the base of the accelerometer is dinamically tilted by an angle α so that the sensor undergoes a component of the gravitational acceleration g proportional to angle α. In practice, several issues have to be addressed by the calibration facility, such as the seismic noise limiting the signal-to-noise ratio, the generation and the accurate measurement of the tilt angle. Furthermore, the calibration was performed taking into account different on-flight conditions such as different operating temperatures and possible deformation of the accelerometers during the launch. The experimental set-up and the calibration procedure are described in the paper. The measurement results and the uncertainty budget show that a relative accuracy of 240 ppm has been achieved.

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“…The electrostatic force between two surfaces is also non-linear with surface separation. To avoid these two problems, authors typically design their device with a three-plate differential capacitor [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ] (eventually connected to a Bluemlein impedance bridge [ 5 , 10 ]). This scheme allows a reasonable degree of system linearization about a fixed point [ 11 ] under the assumptions that the magnitudes of perturbations are small and the control system acts instantaneously or with a small delay.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This frequency-selective component (analogue or digital filter), introduces group delay into the closed-loop system, causing instabilities in the feedback loop and impairing the transient response of the system. In common accelerometer applications, the filter transport delay is negligible since the system’s dynamics are usually slow relative to the time delay imposed on the system by filters ([ 3 , 4 , 5 , 8 ]). The problem of time delay in non-linear systems was also well described in [ 19 , 20 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feedback Control of a Nonlinear Electrostatic Force Transducer

Rýger

Balogh

Chamraz

et al. 2020

Sensors

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We document a feedback controller design for a nonlinear electrostatic transducer that exhibits a strong unloaded resonance. Challenging features of this type of transducer include the presence of multiple fixed points (some of which are unstable), nonlinear force-to-deflection transfer, effective spring-constant softening due to electrostatic loading and associated resonance frequency shift. Furthermore, due to the utilization of lowpass filters in the electronic readout circuitry, a significant amount of transport delay is introduced in the feedback loop. To stabilize this electro-mechanical system, we employ an active disturbance-rejecting controller with nonlinear force mapping and delay synchronization. As demonstrated by numerical simulations, the combination of these three control techniques stabilizes the system over a wide range of electrode deflections. The proposed controller shows good setpoint tracking and disturbance rejection, and improved settling time, compared to the sensor alone.

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Zero-g positioning for the BepiColombo ISA accelerometer

Cited by 7 publications

References 12 publications

Geodesy, Geophysics and Fundamental Physics Investigations of the BepiColombo Mission

Geodesy, Geophysics and Fundamental Physics Investigations of the BepiColombo Mission

Calibration of high accuracy accelerometers for ESA missions BepiColombo and JUICE at INRIM

Feedback Control of a Nonlinear Electrostatic Force Transducer

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