ADVANCED THERMAL RADIATION PRESSURE MODELING AND ITS BENEFITS FOR THE MICROSCOPE MISSION

A thorough modeling of the propagation of spacecraft motion is of utmost importance for scientific space missions. As a consequence, models of non-gravitational effects need to employ an accuracy corresponding to the designated mission goal. We show a high-precision approach for the analysis of thermal radiation pressure (TRP) and apply the method to the French space mission MICROSCOPE aiming at an analysis of a possible violation of the Weak Equivalence Principle (WEP) at an accuracy of eta = 10(-15). We discuss the influence of the mission profile, the evolving surface temperatures and the effect of surface degradation during the mission on the resulting TRP.