Marilena Amoroso - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Marilena Amoroso

Acta Astronautica

The LICIACube mission will serve as scientific support for NASA's DART kinetic impactor • LICIACu... more The LICIACube mission will serve as scientific support for NASA's DART kinetic impactor • LICIACube will be the first CubeSat to visit an asteroid system • Hardware limitations and the complexity of the mission narrow down the trajectory options • Accurate optimization is adopted to identify best options for scientific return maximization • Robustness of the selected trajectory, in presence of uncertainties and contingencies, is derived Manuscript File Click here to view linked References

Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2022: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave

The Planetary Science Journal

Light Italian Cubesat for Imaging of Asteroids (LICIACube) is an Italian mission managed by the I... more Light Italian Cubesat for Imaging of Asteroids (LICIACube) is an Italian mission managed by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and part of the NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) planetary defense mission. Its main goals are to document the effects of the DART impact on Dimorphos, the secondary member of the (65803) Didymos binary asteroid system, characterizing the shape of the target body and performing dedicated scientific investigations on it. Within this framework, the mission Science Operations Center will be managed by the Space Science Data Center (ASI-SSDC), which will have the responsibility of processing, archiving, and disseminating the data acquired by the two LICIACube onboard cameras. In order to better accomplish this task, SSDC also plans to use and modify its scientific webtool Multi-purpose Advanced Tool for Instruments for the solar system Exploration (MATISSE), making it the primary tool for the LICIACube data analysis, thanks to its advanced capabilities f...

AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, Dec 1, 2020

Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2018: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave, 2018

JANUS is the camera of the ESA mission JUICE, dedicated to high-resolution imaging in the extende... more JANUS is the camera of the ESA mission JUICE, dedicated to high-resolution imaging in the extended-visible wavelength region (340 – 1080nm). The camera will observe Jupiter and its satellites providing detailed maps of their surfaces and atmospheres. During the mission, the camera will face a huge variety of observing scenarios ranging from the imaging of the surfaces of the satellites under varying illumination conditions to limb observation of the atmospheres. The stray-light performance of JANUS has been studied through non-sequential ray-tracing simulations with the aim to characterize and optimize the design. The simulations include scattering effects produced by micro-roughness and particulate contamination of the optical surfaces, the diffusion from mechanical surfaces and ghost reflections from refractive elements. The results have been used to derive the expected stray-light performance of the instrument and to validate the instrument design.

JANUS (Jupiter Amorum ac Natorum Undique Scrutator) is a high-resolution camera to be flown on bo... more JANUS (Jupiter Amorum ac Natorum Undique Scrutator) is a high-resolution camera to be flown on board JUICE Spacecraft, devoted to investigate the atmosphere of Jupiter and the surfaces of his icy moons (Europa, Ganymede and Callisto), in the frame of ESA “Cosmic Vision” program. The scientific objectives that JANUS will reach constrained the design of JANUS Optical Head Unit (OHU), and in particular the specific measurement of Ganymede Libration, imposes highly stringent requirement on the Line of Sight (LoS) knowledge of the instrument. The differential thermal environment conditions of the mission orbits, as well as the instrument heat dissipation timelines, induce optical elements translation and rotations that correspond to a Line of Sight variation. During the mission, the LoS can be characterized with a stellar field or single star observation but none direct measurement of its variation can be retrieved during the scientific imaging sessions. To recover the LoS knowledge, a S...

CEAS Space Journal, 2019

The STereo imaging Channel (STC) is a double wide-angle camera developed to be one of the channel... more The STereo imaging Channel (STC) is a double wide-angle camera developed to be one of the channels of the SIMBIO-SYS instrument onboard of the ESA BepiColombo mission to Mercury. STC main goal is to map in 3D the whole Mercury surface. The geometric and radiometric responses of the STC Proto Flight model have been characterized on-ground during the calibration campaign. The derived responses will be used to calibrate the STC images that will be acquired in flight. The aim is to determine the functions linking the detected signal in digital number to the radiance of the target surface in physical units. The result of the radiometric calibration consists in the determination of well-defined quantities: (1) the dark current as a function of the integration time and of the detector temperature, settled and controlled to be stable at 268 K; (2) the read out noise, which is associated with the noise signal of the read-out electronic; and (3) the fixed pattern noise, which is generated by the different response of each pixel. Once these quantities are known, the photon response and the photoresponse non-uniformity, which represents the variation of the photon responsivity of a pixel in an array, can be derived. The final result of the radiometric calibration is the relation between the radiance of an accurately known and uniform source, and the digital numbers measured by the detector.

Review of Scientific Instruments, 2019

The Stereo Channel (STC) is a double wide-angle camera developed to be one of the channels of the... more The Stereo Channel (STC) is a double wide-angle camera developed to be one of the channels of the SIMBIO-SYS instrument onboard of the ESA BepiColombo mission to Mercury. STC main goal is to map in 3D the whole Mercury surface. The geometric and radiometric responses of the STC Proto Flight model have been characterized on-ground during the calibration campaign. The derived responses will be used to calibrate the STC images that will be acquired in flight. The aim is to derive the functions that link the detected signal in digital number to the radiance of the target surface in physical units. The result of the radiometric calibration consists in the determination of well-defined quantities: i) the dark current as a function of the integration time and of the detector temperature, nominally fixed at 268 K; ii) the Read Out Noise, which is associated with the noise signal of the read-out electronic; iii) the Fixed Pattern Noise, which is generated by the different response of each pixel; iv) once these quantities are known, the photon response and the Photo Response Non-uniformity, which represent the variation of the photon-responsivity of a pixel in an array, can be derived. The final result of the radiometric calibration is the relation between the radiance of an accurately known and uniform source, and the digital numbers measured by the detector.

Measurement, 2018

The Stereo Imaging Channel (STC) is one of the channels of the Spectrometer and Imagers for MPO B... more The Stereo Imaging Channel (STC) is one of the channels of the Spectrometer and Imagers for MPO BepiColombo Integrated Observatory SYStem (SIMBIO-SYS) onboard the ESA BepiColombo mission to Mercury. STC is a double wide-angle camera designed to image each portion of the Mercury surface from two different lines of sights, whose main aim is to provide panchromatic stereo-image pairs required to generate the Digital Terrain Model (DTM) reconstruction. In addition, selected surface areas will be acquired in color. This work presents the expected STC on-ground and in-flight performance describing the preliminary evaluation of some key parameters: the optical performance, the on-ground resolution and detector response, the achievable Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) for different integration times and observation strategies and the global coverage of panchromatic filters during the entire scientific phase. The estimation of the SNR has been made using the STC radiometric model with Hapke reflectance model for Mercury surface and the SPICE toolkit software. The SPICE toolkit software with kernel for BepiColombo mission has been used also for the estimation of the on-ground pixel dimension and the global coverage all over the mission.

In the frame of the Planetary Defense program, NASA developed the Double Asteroid Redirection Tes... more In the frame of the Planetary Defense program, NASA developed the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission and the Italian Space Agency joined the effort. DART’s spacecraft will act as a kinetic impactor by deliberately crashing into the moonlet of Didymos binary system (i.e. Didymos-B) while the effects of the impact will be observed by a small satellite, the Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroid (LICIACube) and ground-based telescopes. LICIACube, an Italian Space Agency (ASI) mission, will fly with a relative velocity of approximately 6.5 km/s and it will document the effects of the impact, the crater and the evolution of the plume generated by the collision. LICIACube will have to maintain the asteroid's pointing at an angular speed of approximately 10 deg/s to fly-by the asteroid close to the Didymos-B surface. The images acquired by LICIACube will be processed onboard through the autonomous navigation algorithm to identify the asteroid system and control the ...

Not-well-known dust plume produced by the high-speed DART impact

The Planetary Science Journal

On 2022 September 26, the DART spacecraft will impact the surface of Dimorphos, the ∼160 m size s... more On 2022 September 26, the DART spacecraft will impact the surface of Dimorphos, the ∼160 m size satellite of the binary near-Earth asteroid (NEA) (65803) Didymos. What will be observed on the surfaces of both asteroids and at the DART impact site is largely unknown, beyond the details of Didymos revealed by previous Arecibo and Goldstone radar observations. We present here the expected DART and LICIACube observations of the Didymos system and discuss the planned mapping strategies. By searching similar geological features and processes identified on other NEAs, we constrain the impact conditions that DART might encounter at Dimorphos, assessing both the asteroid’s surface and interior structure.

The Planetary Science Journal

The Light Italian Cubesat for Imaging of Asteroids (LICIACube) is part of the NASA Double Asteroi... more The Light Italian Cubesat for Imaging of Asteroids (LICIACube) is part of the NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the first mission aiming to demonstrate the applicability of the kinetic impactor method for planetary defense. The mission was launched on 2021 November 24 to perform the impact experiment on Dimorphos, the small secondary of the binary asteroid (65803) Didymos. The 6U LICIACube, stored as a piggyback of the DART spacecraft, is the first Italian mission operating in deep space managed by the Italian Space Agency that will witness the effects of the DART impact on Dimorphos. On board LICIACube, there is a suite of cameras that will perform imaging of Didymos and Dimorphos to investigate the DART impact effects and study the binary system. Among them, the LICIACube Unit Key Explorer (LUKE), a wide-angle camera coupled to an RGB Bayer pattern filter, will be pivotal to constrain the surface composition and heterogeneity of the binary system due to differences in ...

AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, Dec 1, 2020

EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2019, Sep 1, 2019

AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, Dec 1, 2019

EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts, Apr 1, 2019

Introduction “LICIACube &#... more Introduction “LICIACube – the Light Italian Cubesat for Imaging of Asteroids”[1] is a CubeSat managed by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), that will be part of the NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission [2]. DART will be the first mission demonstrating the applicability of the kinetic impactor to change to motion of an asteroid in space and prevent the impact of Earth with a hazardous object. After being launched in summer 2021, the DART spacecraft will impact in autumn 2022 Dimorphos, the secondary member of the (65803) Didymos binary asteroid. With a mass of 650 kg and an impact velocity of about 6.6 km/s, DART is expected to change the binary orbital period of the 160-m Dimorphos by about 10 minutes, an effect that can be easily measured by ground-based telescopes. The design, integration and test of the CubeSat have been assigned by ASI to the aerospace company Argotec, while the LICIACube Ground Segment has a complex architecture based on the Argotec Mission Control Centre, antennas of the NASA Deep Space Network and data archiving and processing, managed at the ASI Space Science Data Center. The LICIACube team includes a wide scientific community, involved in the definition of all the aspects of the mission: trajectory design; navigation analysis (and real-time orbit determination during operations); impact, plume and imaging simulation and modelling, in preparation of a suitable framework for the analysis and interpretation of in-situ data. The scientific team is led by National Institute of Astrophysics (OAR, IAPS, OAA, OAPd, OATs) with the support of IFAC-CNR and University Parthenope of Naples. The team is enriched by University of Bologna, for orbit determination and satellite navigation, and Polytechnic of Milan, for mission analysis and optimization. The major technological mission challenge, i.e. the autonomous targeting and imaging of such a small body during a fast fly-by, to be accomplished with the limited resources of a CubeSat, is affordable thanks to a strong synergy of all the mentioned teams in support of the engineering tasks. Nominal mission DART probe will be launched in mid-2021 and LICIACube will be hosted as piggyback during the 15 months of interplanetary cruise, then released 10 days before the impact and autonomously guided along its fly-by trajectory. In  Figure 1 the nominal mission is shown. LICIACube downlinks images direct to Earth after the target fly-by. <img src="data:image/jpeg;base64,…

EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2019, Sep 1, 2019

Introduction The NASA Double Asteroid Re... more Introduction The NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission will be the first test to check an asteroid deflection by a kinetic impactor. The target of DART mission is Dimorphos the secondary element of the (65803) Didymos binary asteroid system, and the impact is expected in late September – early October, 2022 [1] The DART S/C will carry a 6U cubesat called LICIACube (Light Italian Cubesat for Imaging of Asteroid) [2], provided by the Italian Space Agency, with the aim to collect pictures of the impact’s effects. On board LICIAcube will be hosted 2 camera payloads: LEIA a panchromatic (400-900nm Filter, 2.9x2.9° FOV) Narrow Angle Camera and  LUKE a RGB (Bayer color filter, 4.8 x 9.15° FOV).  LICIACube will be able to acquire the structure and evolution of the DART impact ejecta plume and will obtain high-resolution images and 2 colours data (B-G, G-R) of the surfaces of both bodies and the plume. In order to check the imaging capability and to optimize the fast scientific phase of LICIACube, the LICIACube team performed simulations of pictures’ acquisition. In these simulations, considering the specifications of the 2 optical payloads and the foreseen mission design, we reconstructed synthetic images mainly of the plume. Since the study of the plume and its evolution is one of the main scientific goal of the mission we performed a scattering modelling of the ejecta in order to invert the future photometric data deriving hints on the intimate nature of the dust particles released by the impact. Plume simulated Images and column density With the two-fold aim of set the operative parameters for the Payloads and to understand the information retrievable by the images of the evolving plume we started an imaging simulation activities taking into account: <ul> <li>LICIAcube mission design [3] (Trajectory, Speed, illumination conditions)</li> <li>Payloads optical characteristics</li> </ul> The plume evolution was simplified assuming: <ul> <li>Non colliding particles during the plume evolution;</li> <li>A speed distribution in the plume given by eq:</li> </ul> <img src="data:image/jpeg;base64,…

Acta Astronautica

Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2022: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave

The Planetary Science Journal

AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, Dec 1, 2020

Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2018: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave, 2018

CEAS Space Journal, 2019

Review of Scientific Instruments, 2019

Measurement, 2018

Not-well-known dust plume produced by the high-speed DART impact

The Planetary Science Journal

AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, Dec 1, 2020

EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2019, Sep 1, 2019

AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, Dec 1, 2019

EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts, Apr 1, 2019

EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2019, Sep 1, 2019