Bepi Colombo and the challenges of exploring Mercury

Steph P. Bianchini October 21, 2018 5 Comments

Among the numerous news of this week, one is worthy of further discussion. After decades of studies, BepiColombo mission is a go.

The probe represents Europe’s first mission to Mercury, just launched yesterday (20 October) toward the smallest and least explored terrestrial planet in our Solar System. It’s going to arrive at the destination in December 2025, after nine different planetary flybys — one of Earth, two of Venus and six of Mercury. Why will it take so long? “The problem arises because Mercury is so small and so close to the sun. That means it orbits the sun incredibly quickly, and a spacecraft hoping to visit the innermost planet has to travel pedal-to-the-metal in order to catch up to the swift world. But there’s a big catch: The sun’s gravity will pull the spacecraft so strongly toward the star that a craft like BepiColombo actually needs to brake throughout its cruise to avoid getting tugged off course.” (Read more here). Otherwise said, instead of gain speed, the probe has to slow down (to know more about the technical feature and the engine that’s going to deliver it, read this).

It’s not an easy task: after all, it took until 1985 before somebody was able to figure out a way to make the orbital trajectories work out properly.

For the moment, everything went according to the plan and the probe has transmitted its first images to ground control.  ESA says that “when it arrives at Mercury in late 2025, it will endure temperatures in excess of 350 °C and gather data during its 1 year nominal mission, with a possible 1-year extension. The mission comprises two spacecraft: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO). BepiColombo is a joint mission between ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), executed under ESA leadership“.

Let’s get ready for awesome science.