Improvement of the Planetary Gravitational Potentiel Field Knwoledge with Accurate Electrostatic Accelerometer / Gradiometer

Abstract:

ONERA has developed since several years the most accurate accelerometers for the geodesy mission. The accelerometers are still operational in the GRACE mission. Their successors for the GRACE-FO mission are under manufacturing and will fly in 2017. Finally, the GOCE mission has proved the interest of gradiometer for a direct measurement of the gravity field.
Now, ONERA proposes a new design of accelerometer, MicroSTAR, for interplanetary mission. It inherits of the same technology but with reduced mass and consumption. It has been proposed in several missions towards outer planets in order to test the deviation to the relativity general over large distance to the sun (with the addition of a bias rejection system). But the same instrument could be interesting to improve our knowledge of the planetary gravitational potential field, allowing a better understanding of the planet interior composition. The success of using accelerometer for geodesy mission could be imported in the planetary science.
The paper will present the accuracy achievable on the gravity potential field according to different accelerometer configurations (one accelerometer, one gradiometer arm or a complete 3-axis gradiometer). Then, the instrument will be described and the integration of the instrument inside an interplanetary probe will be evoked.