Acta Astronautica 59 (2006) 1052 – 1061 www.elsevier.com/locate/actaastro Design and performance of the payload instrumentation of the BepiColombo Mercury planetary orbiter M. Collon a , ∗ , E.J. Buis a , M. Beijersbergen a , S. Kraft a , C. Erd b , R. den Hartog b , A. Owens b , P. Falkner b , R. Schulz b , A. Peacock b a Cosine Research B.V., Niels Bohrweg 11, 2333 CA Leiden, The Netherlands b ESA-ESTEC, SCI-A, P.O. Box 299, 2200 AG Noordwijk, Netherlands Available online 5 October 2005 Abstract High integration and miniaturization of payload suites have been identified by ESA as a possible strategy for future space missions. Driving argument for this effort is the wish for the future exploration of more solar system bodies in a relatively short time period. Standardizing the payload of missions may contribute to the flexibility of the mission, whereas the reduction of mass and volume could significantly reduce the all over costs. This approach was followed throughout the re-assessment of the payload of the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) for the BepiColombo mission. The exploration of Mercury imposes several challenges on the mission due to Mercury’s environment: The orbiter payload instruments have to face a rather high thermal heat load and high radiation dose levels. Mass savings were intended throughout the instrumentation by definition of the instruments design to a higher level, while meeting the science requirements. The instruments design and the iteration towards a higher maturity level was carried out together with the Science Advisory group of BepiColombo. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction This paper describes the design of the instrumenta- tion of the BepiColombo MPO payload derived from the science objectives with the emphasis on iden- tifying the main payload objectives and instrument requirements. The design drivers for every instru- ment are given together with detailed description of the instrument performance and key drivers. This ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: m.collon@cosine.nl (M. Collon), cerd@rssd.esa.int (C. Erd). 0094-5765/$ - see front matter © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2005.07.015 collection resulted in the BepiColombo Payload Def- inition Document (PDD) issue 3.1 [1] and lead to the development of a Highly Integrated Payload Suite (HIPS) as described elsewhere in this conference. The re-assessment of the payload instrumentation with the goal to achieve miniaturisation has been carried out from top level so as to derive a high level of standard- ization by use of common techniques. Solutions that have entered the payload definition are discussed in some detail. Results from analytical calculations and Monte Carlo simulations are shown to demonstrate the feasibility of some instruments of the payload suite, in particular those, which appeared in the beginning