OPENSPACE 24: The Future of Space Exploration | Page 40

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raised more questions than answers. Due to its small size, completed the acoustic, mechanical, and vibration tests
scientists believed Mercury’s iron core would have cooled and needed before traveling to the launching site at Europe’s
solidified, in contrast to the Earth’s. However, measurements spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
by Messenger revealed that the planet has a magnetic field,
which indicates a liquid interior. BepiColombo will make
measurements designed to reveal the planet’s internal
structure in greater detail.
The spacecraft will also monitor the planet’s polar
regions to investigate the presence of water ice in Mercury’s
permanently shadowed craters. Measuring the exact chemical
To be able to enter a stable orbit,
BepiColombo will perform a cleverly
choreographed series of flybys
designed to slow the spacecraft
down.
composition of the ice could help find out its origins. One of
the theories that the spacecraft will try to solve is whether Once launched, the spacecraft will have a 7.2-year cruise.
the ice derives from comets impacting the planet’s surface. The length of the journey is not because Mercury is so far
away but because the spacecraft needs to be going slowly
A 7-year journey enough to enter a stable orbit. This is a particular problem
The arrival of BepiColombo at Mercury is planned for for Mercury, with its extremely thin atmosphere.
December 2025, according to Reininghaus. After some To be able to tackle this, BepiColombo will perform a
delays in the manufacturing of the s pacecraft because of cleverly choreographed series of fly-bys—one by Earth, two
the complexity of the mission, BepiColombo seems to be by Venus and six by Mercury—designed to slow it down. “By
on track for its launch in 2018. Both orbiters have already the time we’re injected into orbit, we will have gone around
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