The BepiColombo SERENA/ELENA Instrument On-Ground Testing with the ELENA Special Check Out Equipment (SCOE)
Francesco Lazzarotto (1), Nello Vertolli (1), Dario Maschietti (3),, Andrea Maria Di Lellis (3), Jouni Ryno (5), Fabio Camozzi (6), Stefano Orsini, (1), Anna Milillo (1), Alessandro Mura (1), Elisabetta De Angelis (1),, Rosanna Rispoli (1), Luca Colasanti (1), Stefano Selci (2)

TL;DR
This paper details the ground testing setup and software systems for the ELENA instrument, part of the BepiColombo mission, focusing on configuration, data handling, and simulation tools aligned with ESA standards.
Contribution
It introduces the ELENA SCOE testing system and the associated software framework, demonstrating compliance with ESA standards and integration into the BepiColombo ground segment.
Findings
Successful configuration and testing of ELENA instrument components.
Development of ESA-standard compliant software for data handling.
Prototype of the BepiColombo science ground segment pipeline.
Abstract
The neutral particles sensor ELENA (Emitted Low Energy Neutral Atoms) for the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury (in the SERENA instrument suite) is devoted to measure low energetic neutral atoms. The main goal of the experiment is measuring the sputtering emission from planetary surfaces, from E=20eV up to E=5keV, within 1D (2 deg. x 76 deg. ). ELENA original project had also a particle discrimination system based on Time-of-Flight (TOF) of particles through the shutter on the Micro Channel Plates detector (MCP), it has been withdrawn from the flight model due to design and development problems. The ELENA SCOE is the configuration/testing system of ELENA, it allows to command operations and to set up configuration parameters on the instrument and to monitor the incoming data. The TC/TM simulation/encoding/decoding software is developed respecting the CCSDS/ECSS standards…
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Taxonomy
TopicsAstrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena · Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics · Astro and Planetary Science
