Planet Interior

Bco: Anne Lemaître

Duration: 1/1/17 to 31/12/22

The project aims at studying the interior of Mars, Mercury, Venus and the Galilean satellites by means of geodesy.

The investigation focusses on the gravity field, the rotation and the tides of these celestial bodies.Radio science data of operational Mars missions will be analysed in order to study the Martian interior and atmosphere and its moon Phobos.

Contributions will be made to the development of observation strategies of BepiColombo and JUICE, and scientific models of the rotation, tides, interior structure and evolution of terrestrial planets and icy satellites developed in order to improve and refine the interpretation of the upcoming BepiColombo and JUICE data. Data from altimeters, cameras, and accelerometers will be used complementary to the radio science data.

The Planet Interior project is carried out under a programme of and funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO) in the framework of the PRODEX Programme.