ESA Science & Technology - Publications Archive

This report presents an overview of the assessment study phase of the Cross-Scale candidate M-class Cosmic Vision mission.

This document is the Cross-Scale proposal submitted to ESA in response to the March 2007 "Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 Call for Proposals". It includes descriptions of the scientific objectives, mission profile, payload, spacecraft considerations, science operations and archiving, technology, programmatics and costs, communications and outreach of Cross-Scale.

Reference: SRE/PA/2009/068

This technical review report for the Cross-Scale candidate mission presents the outcome of ESA's internal review of this M-class candidate mission in the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 plan. The review was concluded at the end of the mission assessment phase and carried out in frame of the down-selection to 3 or 4 M-class missions, which will proceed to the definition phase. The main goal of this internal review was to identify the mission's critical issues and associated risks at technical, programmatic and financial level.

Executive Summary of the mission study by EADS Astrium (Ref: CS.ASU.TN.ES). Cross-Scale is a mission that both builds on the advances from previous spacecraft missions like Cluster and also pushes the frontiers of knowledge in terms of magnetospheric dynamics, energy processes and couplings across different spatial and temporal scales. This is done by simultaneously measuring a minimum of two plasma scales (electron and ion scales in year 1 and then ion and fluid scales afterwards) with 7 spacecraft in two nested tetrahedral constellations (with a common apex), over a 5 year period. This document provides a concise summary of the findings from the ESA contract awarded to the Astrium Ltd study team, for the "System Design of the Cross-Scale Mission".

Executive Summary of the mission study by the consortium led by Thales Alenia Space, including Deimos and OHB (Ref: CS-TAS-TN-100350224F). The Consortium led by Thales Alenia Space, including Deimos and OHB, has completed the Assessment Phase contract "System Design of the Cross-Scale Mission" awarded by ESA. The expertise of the Consortium has allowed analysing the requirements, trading options extensively and selecting a baseline design that has been defined in detail and justified by a comprehensive set of analyses. The robust solution not only fully complies with the requirements, but also implements high TRL and strong design-to-schedule dispositions that lead to safer programmatics, to the maximization of the mass production effect and to the mastery of costs. The technical, schedule and cost elements produced will enable ESA to assess the Cross-Scale Mission in the frame of its Cosmic Vision selection process.

ESA's report to the 37th COSPAR meeting (13-20 July 2008) covers the missions of the Science Programme of ESA. This section contains the report on the Cosmic Vision candidate, Cross-Scale.

This Payload Definition Document (PDD) is a compilation of the Cross-Scale strawman payload requirements and of their related reference design. The PDD plays a key role in defining the resources required by the Cross-Scale instruments and in providing the information necessary to conduct the mission assessment study and the preliminary spacecraft design. [This is an abbreviated version of the original document abstract.]

The contents of this Science Requirements Document (Sci-RD) are agreed by all the contributors to be the scientific requirements for the Cross-Scale mission against which the Reference Payload has been designed and the mission profile established. [This is an abbreviated version of the original document abstract.]