BepiColombo

Europe’s Mercury mission is moved through ESA’s ESTEC Test Centre in this new video, positioning it for testing inside the largest vacuum chamber in Europe, for a trial by vacuum.

BepiColombo, Europe’s first mission to study Mercury, is a joint mission with Japan. Two spacecraft – the Mercury Planetary Orbiter and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter – will fly in two different paths around the planet to study it from complementary perspectives.

Flight hardware for the mission is undergoing testing at ESA’s Technical Centre, ESTEC, in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, the largest spacecraft test facility in Europe, to prepare for its 2016 launch.

The Mercury Planetary Orbiter was placed inside the chamber in late October for ‘thermal–vacuum’ testing. It will sit in vacuum until early December, subjected to the equivalent temperature extremes that will be experienced in Mercury orbit.

Liquid nitrogen runs through the walls of the chamber to recreate the chill of empty space, while an array of lamps focuses simulated sunlight 10 times more intense than on Earth.

Click to expand...

Animation visualising BepiColombo’s 7.2 year journey to Mercury.

This animation is based on a launch date of 5 October, marking the start of the launch window in October 2018. It illustrates the gravity assist flybys that the spacecraft will make at Earth, Venus and Mercury before arriving at Mercury in December 2025.

Click to expand...

BepiColombo: To this day, Mercury remains the most mysterious planet of our solar system. The Sun’s glare makes it impossible to study via telescope and the extreme heat and proximity to the Sun make it hard to reach. As many questions remain unanswered, ESA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have teamed up for the dual spacecraft mission “BepiColombo”, named after the Italian professor Giuseppe ‘Bepi’ Colombo, which is made of 2 separate orbiters: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (supplied by ESA) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (supplied by JAXA), and a propulsion module.

Click to expand...

ESA’s first mission to Mercury, BepiColombo, is now set for final thermal tests before launching to the hottest planet in our Solar System in October 2018. Europe said farewell to the spacecraft in July when it was at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, in its launch configuration.

BepiColombo is a joint mission to Mercury between the ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and consists of two science orbiters: ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter.

Click to expand...

Preparation is well under way for BepiColombo. Recently the long flight to Mercury was simulated at ESOC, ESA's Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, where it will be controlled during its journey after its launch from Kourou.

Click to expand...

BepiColombo is scheduled for launch at 01:45 GMT (03:45 CEST) on 20 October on an Ariane 5 from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou.

Final assembly of the two orbiters and transfer module has taken place, ready for the spacecraft to be integrated into its Ariane 5 launcher.

BepiColombo is Europe’s first mission to Mercury, the smallest and least explored planet in the inner Solar System. It is a joint endeavour between ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA, and consists of two scientific orbiters: ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO). The mission will study all aspects of Mercury, from the structure and dynamics of its magnetosphere and how it interacts with the solar wind, to its internal structure with its large iron core, and the origin of the planet’s magnetic field.

Click to expand...

Meet Bepi, Mio and MTM, three new space explorers about to start an extraordinary journey to Mercury, a planet of extremes and mysteries.

Find out how these bold spacecraft have been preparing for their epic adventure, from space school to flyby practice. Watch as their training covers not only planetary science and space education, but also cultural aspects of their places of origin: Bepi and MTM were born in Europe, while Mio comes from Japan.

Follow Bepi, Mio and MTM as they become fascinated by their destination thanks to the curious discoveries made by their cousin Messenger. Learn about the science questions that Bepi and Mio will investigate, from Mercury's geology and surface composition to the magnetic field and its interaction with the solar wind.

Finally, walk with them to the launch pad and wish them a great start to a memorable adventure.

Click to expand...

The European Space Agency and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s BepiColombo mission to Mercury launched atop an Ariane 5 rocket on Oct 20, 2018 (Oct 19 EDT) from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana.

Click to expand...

BepiColombo lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on an Ariane 5 rocket at 01:45 GMT on 20 October 2018

Click to expand...

An Ariane 5 ECA launch vehicle (Ariane Flight VA245) launched the ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury from Ariane Launch Complex No. 3 (ELA 3) at Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, on 20 October 2018, at 01:45 UTC (19 October, at 22:45 local time). The mission is a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). BepiColombo consists of two scientific orbiters: ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO). The mission was named in honor of Giuseppe “Bepi” Colombo, an Italian scientist who studied the planet Mercury and first implemented the interplanetary gravity-assist manoeuvre.

Click to expand...

The BepiColombo satellite separated from the upper stage of the Ariane 5 ECA launch vehicle (Ariane Flight VA245) 27 minutes after being launched from Ariane Launch Complex No. 3 (ELA 3) at Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, on 20 October 2018, at 01:45 UTC (19 October, at 22:45 local time). The mission is a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). BepiColombo consists of two scientific orbiters: ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO). The mission was named in honor of Giuseppe “Bepi” Colombo, an Italian scientist who studied the planet Mercury and first implemented the interplanetary gravity-assist manoeuvre.
Credit:
Arianespace

Click to expand...

There's a lot we don't know about the first rock from the Sun. How was Mercury formed? What's it made of? Claire Reilly takes a look at the Solar System's first and favorite child, and the European and Japanese joint-mission to learn more about this strangely wrinkled planet.

Click to expand...

The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission completed its Earth flyby on 10 April 2020. The spacecraft came less than 12700 km from Earth’s surface at 04:25 UTC, steering its trajectory towards the final destination, Mercury. The spacecraft will perform two flybys at Venus (in October 2020 and August 2021) and six at Mercury, starting from October 2021, before orbit insertion in December 2025.
Credits:
European Space Agency (ESA)/Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
ESA/BepiColombo/MTM, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Click to expand...

On 1 October 2021, the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo spacecraft performed its first Mercury flyby.
These are some of the first images taken by the Monitoring Cameras, which provide black-and-white snapshots in 1024 x 1024 pixel resolution.

Click to expand...

The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo spacecraft performed its second Mercury flyby. The closest approach took place on 23 June 2022, at 09:44 UTC, about 200 km above the planet’s surface.

Credit:
ESA/JAXA/BepiColombo/MTM

Click to expand...

The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo spacecraft performed its third Mercury flyby. 217 images captured by BepiColombo’s monitoring camera M-CAM 3 starting from 19:46:25 UTC on 19 June 2023, at an altitude of 1 789 km above the planet’s surface, and ending at 20:34:25 UTC on 20 June 2023, when BepiColombo was 331 755 km away.

Click to expand...

The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo spacecraft performed the fourth of six gravity assist flybys at Mercury on 4 September 2024. The closest approach took place at 21:48 UTC, with BepiColombo passing about 165 km above Mercury’s surface. BepiColombo will enter orbit around Mercury in November 2026.

Click to expand...