The stereo camera on the bepicolombo ESA/JAXA mission: A novel approach

The stereo camera (STC) is one of three channels of the spectrometer and imagers for Mercury Planet Orbiter BepiColombo Integrated Observatory SYStem (SIMBIOSYS), which will be on board the Mercury Planetary Orbiter of the ESA mission BepiColombo. SIMBIOSYS includes also an high resolution imaging channel (HRIC), providing images at spatial resolution of 5m/pixel at the periherm, and the VIS-NIR spectrometer (VIHI) that will provide the global mapping of the Mercury’s surface in the spectral range 400—2200 nm, with a spectral sampling of 6.25nm, and the spatial resolution of 400m/pixel at the periherm. The main scientific objective of STC is the global mapping of the entire surface of the Mercury in 3D and colors with a scale factor of 50 m/pixel at the periherm. It will allow to generate the digital terrain model (DTM) of the entire surface improving the interpretation of morphological features at different scales and topographic relationships. © 2009 World Scientific Publishing Company. All Rights Reserved.