OPENSPACE 24: The Future of Space Exploration | Page 39

The mission will significantly improve our
understanding of the formation of the
solar system, including whether Mercury
originated at its current position next to
the Sun.
A
lvaro Giménez, director of science at ESA, encountered close to the Sun once orbiting Mercury. About
considers it the most complicated mission ever 70 percent of the technology needed for the mission had to
performed by the agency. BepiColombo is indeed be developed from scratch. To tackle such challenges, ESA
an ambitious project that had to overcome many technical teamed up with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
challenges to become a reality (JAXA). The mission consists of two scientific orbiters:
“Mercury is the least explored of the rocky planets but not ESA’S Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXA’s Mercury
because it is uninteresting,” said Giménez. “It’s because it’s Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO). The European orbiter
difficult to get there, and even more difficult to work there.” is carrying 11 specially designed instruments, and the
So far, only two spacecraft have visited Mercury: NASA’s Japanese counterpart has five; all of them are set to explore
Mariner-10 and Messenger. Mercury’s surface’s extreme Mercury’s crater-pocked surface, enigmatic magnetism, and
temperatures, ranging from +450 to −180 degrees Celsius, tenuous, vestigial atmosphere.
and the Sun’s huge gravity, which makes it difficult to put a
spacecraft into steady orbit around the planet, posed many Exploring the formation of our solar system
obstacles to the manufacturing team. “We’re flying into a “Studying Mercury is essential to understand the formation
pizza oven,” said ESA project manager Ulrich Reininghaus. of our solar system because of its proximity to the Sun,” said
“We had to test materials at different, very high temperature Johannes Benkhoff, project scientist of BepiColombo. “The
regimes, sometimes with very unwanted results.” mission will significantly improve our understanding of the
To cope with the extreme temperatures, BepiColombo
counts on antennas, solar arrays, sun sensors, and multilayer
formation of our solar system, including whether Mercury
originated at its current position next to the Sun.”
insulation and has temperature-resistant outer layers and BepiColombo will also provide unprecedented information
protective coatings. All of them have undergone significant on the origin and evolution of a planet orbiting close to its
testing at ESTEC to prove that they can withstand the parent star, which also has a direct relevance to planets in
violent shaking occurring during launch, the harsh radiation other star systems like Trappist-1. The mission will build
environment of space, and the high temperatures that will be on the legacy of NASAs Messenger, which seems to have
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