Riccardo Lasagni Manghi

Ephemeris estimation of Phobos and Deimos using the Hera opportunity flyby

In March 2025, the Hera s/c will perform a Mars flyby on its way to the binary asteroid system Didymos, which will provide an opportunity to refine the ephemerides estimation for the two Martian moons Phobos and Deimos.
The candidate will assess the expected performances of the orbit determination process by simulating Earth-based radiometric measurements (e.g., range and wide-band ΔDOR) and optical navigation images collected by Hera before, during, and after the flyby, using the current mission scenario. Furthermore, the candidate will perform a sensitivity analysis to assess how the measurement concept of operations affects the final trajectory reconstruction.