BepiColombo: Operations and Data Analysis through the Quick-Look Analysis (QLA) tool

The ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission is currently en route to Mercury since October 2018. It consists of the ESA Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the JAXA Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO) spacecraft which, along with the Mercury Transfer Module (MTM), are stacked all together during the seven years’ cruise phase. This long cruise phase is interspersed by nine planetary flybys used to reach Mercury’s orbit capture. In this configuration, most of the MPO instruments located on the nadir side are obstructed by the MTM and cannot observe. Nevertheless, a subset of “side-looking” instruments can be operated in the stacked-spacecraft configuration during the cruise and gather scientific data. These instruments, mostly dedicated to the study of the Hermean environment (magnetic field, solar wind, exosphere), are operated during the planetary flybys as well as for several cruise science observations. Such events are used to test the BepiColombo Science Ground Segment (SGS) operating systems and processes. The SGS develops the Quick-Look Analysis (QLA) tool that will support the rapid analysis of the instruments’ operational and scientific data acquired during the mission science phase observations, starting in 2026. At present, the tool is used to support cruise and flybys operations, in addition to fostering science collaborations between the BepiColombo instrument teams through its data sharing capabilities. We will present the current status and functionalities.