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A spaceship built by the British is about to begin tomorrow an epic journey of five billion kilometers on the planet Mercury.
BepiColombo is to be launched from the European Spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana, at 20.45 UK time on Saturday 20 October.
It will take seven years for the spacecraft of the European Space Agency (ESA) to reach the planet closest to the sun.
Our @esaoperations mission control is ready for #Mercury after finishing a final simulation – the last stage of their preparations for Saturday @BepiColombo launch.
Learn more: https://t.co/V03XTFJArC pic.twitter.com/ymGZejUli5
– ESA (@esa) October 18, 2018
In 2025, he will put two probes, one European and the other Japanese, into orbit around Mercury, the world's least-explored solar system.
The mercury transfer module (MTM), carrying the orbiters, was built at Stevenage by the Defense and Space division of the aerospace company Airbus.
Key elements of the ESA Mercury Planet Orbiter, we are also assembled by Airbus in the UK.
Scientists hope that the £ 1.4 billion mission will solve some of Mercury's mysteries, such as the reason for its oversized iron core, its spectacular volcanic orifices, and its tempting ice-water notes in the shady parts. of the burning planet.
The answers they will obtain will shed new light on the origins and evolution of the solar system.
On Saturday, October 20th at 3:45 pm (03:45 GMT), our #BepiColombo mission will take off and begin a 7-year journey to the planet #Mercury ??️?
Are you ready to follow the launch? What do you know about this extraordinary mission? Let's start with some essential facts ⬇️➡️ https://t.co/AtSUzYK6uS pic.twitter.com/e8kBcxvs1b
– ESA Science (@esascience) October 18, 2018
BepiColombo is characterized by being the first interplanetary mission to use state-of-the-art electric ion propulsion technology.
Four Star Trek "pulse motors", two at a time, will emit electrically charged xenon beams.
They will not be used to accelerate the craft but to curb the enormous gravity of the sun.
A complex series of overflights beyond the Earth, Venus and Mercury will also help to reduce BepiColombo's speed by 7 km per second.
At maximum speed after launch, the probe will move at 60 km per second.
An Ariane 5 rocket, ESA's most powerful rocket, will propel BepiColombo on an "exit trajectory" that will release it immediately from Earth's gravity chains.
One of the biggest challenges for mission planners was to make sure that the spacecraft could withstand temperatures of over 350 ° C so close to the sun.
Protective measures include a heat shield, new ceramic and titanium insulators, "heat pipes" filled with ammonia and, in the case of the Japanese orbiter, a spindle rotation.
A series of 11 instruments on DFO will map the surface of Mercury and probe its chemical composition for two years.
At the same time, Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter of the Japanese space agency Jaxa will focus on the unusual magnetic field of the planet.
Justin Byrne, chief scientist at Airbus, said: "The mercury is extremely hot and it's an extremely hard place to reach because of the sun's gravity."
One of BepiColombo's main instruments, the Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer (Mixs), was designed and built at the University of Leicester.
The ionic boosters were provided by the British defense technology company QinetiQ.
Only two spacecraft have visited Mercury. The NASA Mariner 10 flew over the planet three times in 1974-1975 and the US Space Agency's Messenger probe orbited Mercury from 2011 to 2015.
BepiColombo was named in honor of the late Giuseppe "Bepi" Colombo, an Italian scientist and engineer who played a leading role in the Mariner 10 mission of 1974.
Before the launch, Professor Jan Woerner, ESA General Manager, said: "For me, science is the basis of humanity because it teaches curiosity.
"It's fulfilling this quest for information and at the end of the day we do not know what we're going to find. It's really an awesome scientific mission.
"We do science, we make technology, we collaborate internationally and we do something for society."
When asked if ESA was in competition with NASA, he replied, "There is no competition, at least for me.
"Competition is a driver, of course, but cooperation is a catalyst. I think the race in space is over. "
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