BepiColombo Mission Closer to Mercury Exploration
Mercury, the planet nearest to the Sun, has been difficult to study closely, with NASA’s MESSENGER being the only spacecraft to have orbited it. However, the upcoming BepiColombo mission, a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), is set to advance our understanding of this rocky planet.
Key Milestone Achieved
Recently, BepiColombo took a significant step by successfully separating its two science orbiters—ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter—from the Mercury Transfer Module. The orbiters communicated strongly with Earth, signaling their readiness for the next phase.
Future Operations
The orbiters will remain together until November, at which point they will enter orbit around Mercury. After a month of joint operations, they will split into separate orbital paths, with full scientific activities beginning in April of the following year.
Scientific Objectives
- ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter: Will focus on analyzing Mercury’s surface topography and internal structure and will test Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
- JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter: Will study the magnetosphere and magnetic field of Mercury.
BepiColombo has achieved several gravity-assisted flybys, improving its trajectory. Notably, during a 2021 flyby, it captured images from just 199 kilometers away, revealing Mercury’s surface details, including volcanic features.
An image taken by BepiColombo shows that large regions of Mercury’s heavily cratered surface are smoothed over by lava from volcanic eruptions.
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