ABSTRACT
BELA, the Laser Altimeter on ESA’s and JAXA’s joint BepiColombo mission, will be launched to Mercury in October 2018. The instrument is equipped with a Nd:YAG-Laser, operating typically at 10 Hz. The instrument is designed to acquire range measurements up to a distance of 1050 km, enabling global coverage of the planet. A unique full digitization of the returned pulse is foreseen supporting albedo and surface roughness measurements on the scale of the laser footprint. The goal of BELA is to obtain a low-order shape and global topographic model of the planet, and to measure Mercury’s rotation, including long-period librations. Also, assuming a two-year mission in orbit, we aim at measurements of Mercury tides. Results from BELA will impose strong constraints on interior structure models and will improve our understanding of formation and evolution of the planet.
