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What are the goals of the BepiColombo mission to Mercury?
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Mercury
Mercury as seen by the Messenger probe, January 14, 2008. This image shows half of the hemisphere missed by Mariner 10 in 1974–75 and was snapped by Messenger's Wide Angle Camera when it was about 27,000 km (17,000 miles) from the planet.
The BepiColombo mission, a collaborative effort between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), is designed to conduct a comprehensive study of Mercury.
The mission utilizes a spacecraft composed of two distinct components, each with specific scientific objectives:
- Mercury Planetary Orbiter (ESA): This module is tasked with studying the planet itself, including its surface and interior composition.
- Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (JAXA): This module is dedicated to investigating the planet's magnetosphere, building upon earlier discoveries regarding Mercury's magnetic field.1
Launched in 2018, the mission is named in honor of the Italian mathematician Giuseppe "Bepi" Colombo, who famously identified that Mercury’s rotation period is two-thirds of its orbital period.1