ESA Science & Technology - Announcement of Opportunity for Interdisciplinary Scientists and Guest Investigators in the BepiColombo mission

BepiColombo is an interdisciplinary mission to the planet Mercury, carried out as a joint project between ESA and JAXA. It consists of two orbiters, the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO), which are dedicated to the detailed study of the planet and its magnetosphere.

The BepiColombo mission was launched on 20 October 2018. Arrival at Mercury and start of the science exploitation phase are expected in December 2025 and April 2026, respectively. The duration of the nominal science operations is one year.

The aim of this AO is to appoint up to six Interdisciplinary Scientists (IDS) and up to 11 Guest Investigators (GI) for the BepiColombo mission. The IDSs and the GIs will be appointed for a first period of three years, renewable. An IDS or GI appointment is ad personam. ESA will not fund the activities of the IDSs or the GIs (travel costs to attend meetings, etc.) and each proposer is responsible for securing his/her own funding.

This call is open to scientists based in ESA Member States, Japan and USA. Principal Investigators and Co-Principal Investigators of the BepiColombo instrument teams are excluded from this call, while Co-Investigators are eligible for IDS positions, but not for GI positions.

Full details of this call, including relevant documents and submission forms, are available at:

https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/bepicolombo-ids-gi-2019/

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