BepiColombo spacecraft will also attempt to explain why the solar system’s smallest planet appears to be shrinking
The BepiColombo spacecraft, which will become the third probe to visit Mercury, has been unveiled ahead of a mission that will tackle some of the deepest mysteries of our solar system.
The spacecraft, scheduled to launch in October 2018, will investigate the existence of water ice at Mercury’s poles and its volcanoes, and attempt to explain the surprising discovery that the solar system’s smallest planet appears to be shrinking. Mercury remains the most elusive of the solar system’s inner planets, partly due to the challenges involved in building a spacecraft robust enough to withstand the “pizza oven” conditions at the planet.
“Mercury is the least explored of the rocky planets, but not because it is uninteresting,” said Prof Alvaro Giménez Cañete, the director of science at the European Space Agency. “It’s because it’s difficult – difficult to get there, even more, difficult to work there.”
BepiColombo is a joint venture between ESA and the Japanese space agency, JAXA, and comprises a pair of spacecraft's (one per agency) that will be bolted together in a 6.4-metre-high stack before its launch from Kourou in French Guiana. The two crafts – Europe’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and Japan’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO) – will separate again on arrival at Mercury, more than seven years later.
The length of the journey is not because Mercury is far, but because the spacecraft needs to be going slowly enough to enter a stable orbit rather than crashing into the planet when it arrives. This is a particular problem for Mercury, where an incredibly thin atmosphere means that braking is inefficient.
Prof Mark McCaughrean, a senior adviser at the European Space Agency, said: “You could get there in three months, but you’d need an enormous amount of propellant to slow down again.” Read more...
The BepiColombo spacecraft, which will become the third probe to visit Mercury, has been unveiled ahead of a mission that will tackle some of the deepest mysteries of our solar system.
The spacecraft, scheduled to launch in October 2018, will investigate the existence of water ice at Mercury’s poles and its volcanoes, and attempt to explain the surprising discovery that the solar system’s smallest planet appears to be shrinking. Mercury remains the most elusive of the solar system’s inner planets, partly due to the challenges involved in building a spacecraft robust enough to withstand the “pizza oven” conditions at the planet.
“Mercury is the least explored of the rocky planets, but not because it is uninteresting,” said Prof Alvaro Giménez Cañete, the director of science at the European Space Agency. “It’s because it’s difficult – difficult to get there, even more, difficult to work there.”
BepiColombo is a joint venture between ESA and the Japanese space agency, JAXA, and comprises a pair of spacecraft's (one per agency) that will be bolted together in a 6.4-metre-high stack before its launch from Kourou in French Guiana. The two crafts – Europe’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and Japan’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO) – will separate again on arrival at Mercury, more than seven years later.
The length of the journey is not because Mercury is far, but because the spacecraft needs to be going slowly enough to enter a stable orbit rather than crashing into the planet when it arrives. This is a particular problem for Mercury, where an incredibly thin atmosphere means that braking is inefficient.
Prof Mark McCaughrean, a senior adviser at the European Space Agency, said: “You could get there in three months, but you’d need an enormous amount of propellant to slow down again.” Read more...