BepiColombo mission set to blast off on a seven-year journey to Mercury – Science News

An ambitious new mission is set to blast off to Mercury, our inner-most planet.

The BepiColombo mission, which is due to launch around midday from French Guiana, is a joint project between the European and Japanese space agencies.

If it is successful, it will be only the third space mission to get up close and personal with this mysterious world.

"Said Glen Nagle from the Deep Space Communication Complex Canberra, which will play a role in tracking the mission.

Mercury in December 2025, 2025. So it will take a long time to go back to the present day.

"It's certainly the most ambitious [mission] the Europeans have flown, "he said.

What are we trying to find out?

The BepiColombo Mission will take up where NASA's Messenger mission left off.

The Messenger spacecraft was the first spacecraft to orbit around Mercury.

Between 2011 and 2015 it is the planet's surface, discovered hints of water and other organic compounds and measured its magnetic field.

"It could really only be a decent high resolution view of the northern hemisphere of Mercury.

"The BepiColombo mission can take a better look, a much higher resolution view of the surface of the planet, and a little bit more about its interaction with the sun."

It could also tell us more about the planet's interior and its weird magnetic field.

"One of the mysteries that messes up with this planet has a wide iron core," Mr Nagle said.

"On Earth [the same size core] It would have been possible for us to have a magnetic field from the center of the planet, but for some reason it seems that Mercury's magnetic field has shifted by about 20 percent of the core of the planet. "

And then there are the tantalizing hints of water ice at the planet's polar caps.

"BepiColombo will be in a polar orbit, so it will look directly into those deep shadowed craters where we think water ice could exist," Mr Nagle said.

The mission

Giuseppe Colombo, who was the first to calculate the math behind Mercury's rotation and orbit.

He also helped NASA work out how to use the gravity of Venus to help get the Mariner 10 spacecraft to Mercury in the 1970s.

"It's a nice thing to see that mathematics and engineering honored by naming the mission after him," Mr Nagle said.

BepiColombo is actually two spacecraft stuck together along with a propulsion system and a heat shield to protect its sensitive instruments from temperatures as high as 400 degrees Celsius.

The whole stack, which is about 6 meters high and has two 14-meter solar wings attached to the propulsion system, for the seven-year journey.

Once it reaches its destination in December 2025 these components will be separated into two individual spacecraft.

The European spacecraft, known as the Mercury Planetary Orbiter, is about the size of a solar panel. It will use an array of instruments such as cameras, spectrometers and altimeters to get a detailed picture of the planet's surface, atmosphere and magnetic field.

The Japanese component of the mission, known as the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter, is an octagonal-shaped craft about the size of small dinner table. It will also study the planet's magnetic field and how it interacts with the solar wind and interplanetary dust.

"Because you have two separate spacecraft they can complement each other's observations," Mr Nagle said.

"If one observes something interesting, the other one from its different perspective could also be observed."

How it will get there

After launch, the BepiColombo mission will fly by Earth and Venus and use their gravity as a slingshot.

It will fly by Earth in 2020, then fly by Venus in 2020 and 2021, then fly by Mercury six times.

"The primary task will be to get enough speed to keep up and catch up with Mercury in its orbit around the sun.

"Mercury orbits on the sun every day 88. It's quite a fast orbit, so [the mission] needs these gravity slingshot effects to get you from one place to another. "

Thanks to these maneuvers it should be in the perfect position to go into orbit in December 2025.

When it does, the space craft will separate.

It will drop its propulsion system, the Japanese spacecraft will part of the European spacecraft, then the European spacecraft will say the sunshield.

The crafts' orbit will continue to tighten for another three months. The science program will start in March 2026 and continue for at least two years.

"Mr. Nagle said," It's a lot of things coming down to fuel to keep the spacecraft pointed where it needs to be pointing.

"A lot of missions tend to be very conservative on their estimates for how long they will go for a long time."

The science mission of Messenger for the sake of the world

Tracking its progress

Throughout it's journey, BepiColombo will be tracked by a number of ground stations around the world.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has tracking stations in Australia, Africa and South America.

"The ESA has a small station with a 35-meter antenna out near New Norcia not far from Perth," Mr Nagle said.

"They will be the main tracking station during the early stages of these cruises towards the planet and some of these initial fly-bys."

But, he said the Canberra Deep Space Communications Center, which is part of NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN), will provide support and support in critical phases such as the fly-bys.

"That's when you would tend to use the larger capacity of the DSN to support the mission itself," Mr Nagle said.

"When the mission goes into its science phase [in March 2026] the DSN will be in charge of the world, and will continue to work on this issue.