Determination of the MESSENGER spacecraft orbit and calculation of Earth-Mercury range points by processing raw range and doppler data

Abstract

Precision interplanetary ranges (range points) are essential for building modern planetary ephemerides. In particular, Earth-Mercury range points allow not only to determine the orbit of Mercury but also to study physical properties of the Sun and test general relativity [1]. While there exist publicly available range points derived in JPL [2, 3] from raw MESSENGER radio science data, we aim to provide an independent analysis.