2 spaceships to fly over Venus

Two spaceships are expected to pass over Venus a few hours apart this week, using the maneuver to do a little extra science on their way to their main missions in the center of our solar system.

The European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter, a cooperation with NASA, will rotate around Venus early Monday, using the planet’s gravity to help it get on a path to observe the Sun’s poles.

About 33 hours later, the Euro-Japanese spacecraft BepiColombo will come even closer to Venus in a maneuver designed to help it slow down sharply and head safely to orbit of Mercury in 2025.

“Without the flyby, we wouldn’t be able to reach our target planet,” said Elsa Montagnon, spacecraft operations manager for BepiColombo. “The energy required to enter orbit around Mercury would be prohibitively expensive in terms of the propellant.”

Both probes have numerous scientific instruments on board, some of which will be used to take a closer look at Venus as they zoom.

The measurements will add to those taken by Japan’s Akatsuki probe, which is already orbiting Earth’s hottest neighbor. NASA and the European Space Agency plan to send three more missions to Venus by the end of the decade.

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