Laboratory measurements of lunar samples to constrain MERTIS observations from BepiColombo Earth/Moon flyby

Abstract

The Mercury Radiometer and Thermal Infrared Spectrometer (MERTIS) [1] is part of the ESA BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) payload and consists of a push-broom IR-spectrometer (-TIS) and a radiometer (-TIR) which operate in the wavelength regions of 7-14 μm and 7-40 μm, respectively. During the long cruise to Mercury, BepiColombo have been flyby the Earth on April 10th, 2020. Due to the flight configuration, not all the instruments onboard BepiColombo are able to operate during cruise and flybys. However, MERTIS is able to acquire data through its space baffle and had the opportunity to observed the Moon during the Earth flyby [1,2]. Sample returned mission and orbital spectroscopic observations in the ultraviolet (UV), visible (VIS) and near-infrared (NIR) domains have greatly advanced our understanding of the mineralogical and chemical composition of the lunar surface. However, MERTIS provided the first hyperspectral observation of the Moon in the thermal infrared (TIR) wavelengths from space and laboratory measurements are needed to interpret this dataset. Here, we present the preliminary results about laboratory measurements of lunar analog rocks under simulated Moon conditions in the spectral range of the spectral imager of MERTIS.