Numerical simulations of the Radio Science Experiment of the Mission BepiColombo to Mercury

The Mercury Orbiter Radio Science Experiment (MORE) of the ESA mission BepiColombo will provide an accurate estimation of Mercury's gravity field by means of highly stable, multi-frequency radio links in X and Ka band. Thanks to a plasma noise cancellation system, two-way range rate accuracies of about 3 mu m/s will be attained at nearly all solar elongation angles. An onboard accelerometer will provide measurements of the non-gravitational accelerations in the band 10(-4)-10(-1) Hz, for improved modeling of the spacecraft dynamics. This work reports on numerical simulations of the MORE experiment and provide an estimate of the achievable accuracies in the determination of the spacecraft orbit and the harmonic coefficients of the gravity field, evaluating also the impact of desaturation maneuvers of the on-board reaction wheels.