BepiColombo

BepiColombo, an ESA mission in cooperation with Japan, will explore Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun. Europe's space scientists have identified the mission as one of the most challenging long-term planetary projects, because Mercury's proximity to the Sun makes it difficult for a spacecraft to reach and survive in the harsh environment. The scientific interest to go to Mercury lies in the valuable clues that such a mission can provide in understanding the planet itself as well as the formation of our Solar System; clues which cannot be obtained with distant observations from Earth.
The information gleaned when BepiColombo arrives will throw light not only on the composition and history of Mercury, but also on the history and formation of the inner planets in general, including the Earth.
The mission will consist of two separate spacecraft that will orbit the planet. ESA is building one of the main spacecraft, the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO), and the Japanese space agency ISAS/JAXA will contribute the other, the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO).
The MPO will study the surface and internal composition of the planet, and the MMO will study Mercury's magnetosphere, that is the region of space around the planet that is dominated by its magnetic field.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• spacecraft
• Mercury
• MPO
• MMO
• ESA
• JAXA