A set of laboratory analogue materials for the MERTIS instrument on the ESA BepiColombo mission to Mercury

The MERTIS (Mercury Thermal Imaging Spectrometer) instrument on the ESA mission BepiColombo will study the surface of Mercury in the wavelength range from 7 to 14 μm. The analysis of the MERTIS data will be posing a number of significant challenges. To facilitate the development of analytic tools, support planned ground based observations and facilitate a cross calibration with other instruments on BepiColombo and MESSENGER, a list of Mercury analogue materials was compiled. This set of analogue materials is based on our current knowledge of the surface composition of Mercury and includes plagioclase and potassium feldspars, low and high Ca pyroxenes, olivine, elemental sulfur, and as an extraterrestrial analogue a lunar highland soil sample. The samples are prepared in four different grain size separates ranging from 0 to 250 μm to cover the expected grain size distribution on the surface of Mercury.