Artist impression of BepiColombo zippingMercury The spacecraft makes 9 gravity help maneuvers (among Earth, 2 of Venus, and 6 of Mercury) prior to getting in orbit around the inner world of the Solar System in2025 Credit: ESA/ATG medialab
The ESA/< period class ="glossaryLink" aria-describedby ="tt" data-cmtooltip ="<div class=glossaryItemTitle>JAXA</div><div class=glossaryItemBody>Formed in 2003, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) was born through the merger of three institutions, namely the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), the National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan (NAL) and the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA). JAXA performs various activities related to aerospace, from basic research in the aerospace field to development and utilization and is responsible for research, technology development, and launch of satellites into orbit, and is involved in advanced missions such as asteroid exploration and possible human exploration of the Moon.</div>" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{" attribute="">JAXA BepiColombo mission is gearing up for its second close flyby of Mercury on June 23, 2022. ESA’s spacecraft operation team is guiding BepiColombo through six gravity assists of the planet before entering orbit around it in 2025.
Like its first encounter last year, this week’s flyby will also bring the spacecraft to within about 200 km (124 miles) altitude above the planet’s surface. Closest approach is anticipated at 09:44 UT (11:44 CEST).
Key moments during BepiColombo’s second Mercury flyby on June 23, 2022. The spacecraft will skim the surface at an altitude of about 200 km (124 miles) at its closest approach, at 09:44 UTC (11:44 CEST). Credit: ESA
The primary purpose of the flyby is to use the planet’s gravity to fine-tune BepiColombo’s trajectory. Having been launched into space on an Ariane 5 from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou in October 2018, BepiColombo is making use of nine planetary flybys: one at Earth, two at Venus, and six at Mercury, together with the spacecraft’s solar electric propulsion system, to help steer into Mercury orbit against the enormous gravitational pull of our Sun.
Even though BepiColombo is in ‘stacked’ cruise configuration for these brief flybys, meaning many instruments cannot yet be fully operated, it can still grab an incredible taste of Mercury science to boost our understanding and knowledge of the Solar System’s innermost planet. A sequence of snapshots will be taken by BepiColombo’s three monitoring cameras showing the planet’s surface, while a number of the magnetic, plasma, and particle monitoring instruments will sample the environment from both near and far from the planet in the hours around close approach.
BepiColombo captured this view of Mercury on October 1, 2021, as the spacecraft flew past the planet for a gravity assist maneuver. The image was taken at 23:41:12 UTC by the Mercury Transfer Module’s Monitoring Camera 2 when the spacecraft was 1410 km (876 miles) from Mercury. Credit: ESA/BepiColombo/MTM, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
“Even during fleeting flybys these science ‘grabs’ are extremely valuable,” says Johannes Benkhoff, ESA’s BepiColombo project scientist. “We get to fly our world-class science laboratory through diverse and unexplored parts of Mercury’s environment that we won’t have access to once in orbit, while also getting a head start on preparations to make sure we will transition into the main science mission as quickly and smoothly as possible.”
A unique aspect of the BepiColombo mission is its dual spacecraft nature. The ESA-led Mercury Planetary Orbiter and the JAXA-led Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter, Mio, will be delivered into complementary orbits around the planet by a third module, ESA’s Mercury Transfer Module, in 2025. Working together, they will study all aspects of this mysterious inner planet from its core to surface processes, magnetic field, and exosphere, to better understand the origin and evolution of a planet close to its parent star. Dual observations are key to understanding solar wind-driven magnetospheric processes, and BepiColombo will break new ground by providing unparalleled observations of the planet’s magnetic field and the interaction of the solar wind with the planet at two different locations at the same time.
The Mercury Planetary Orbiter (inner orbit) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (outer orbit), in their elliptical polar orbits around Mercury. The Mercury Planetary Orbiter will operate in a 2.3 hour orbit from an altitude of 480 x 1500 km above the planet’s surface; the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter will take 9.3 hours to orbit the planet in its 590 x 11640 km orbit. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab
On course for slingshot
Gravitational flybys require extremely precise deep-space navigation work, ensuring that a spacecraft passes the massive body that will alter its orbit at just the right distance, from the correct angle, and with the right velocity. All of this is calculated years in advance but has to be as close to perfect as possible on the day.
Getting into orbit around Mercury is a challenging task. First BepiColombo had to shed the orbital energy it was ‘born’ with as it launched from Earth, which meant it first flew in a similar orbit to our home planet – and shrinking its orbit down to a size more similar to Mercury’s. BepiColombo’s first flybys of Earth and Venus were thus used to ‘dump’ energy and fall closer to the center of the Solar System, while the series of Mercury flybys are being used to lose more orbital energy, but now with the purpose of being captured by the scorched planet.
On its seven-year journey to Mercury, the European-Japanese objective BepiColombo benefits from the gravity of Earth, Venus, and Mercury to change its trajectory and reach its last orbit. Launched in 2018, the spacecraft carries out total 9 gravity help flyby maneuvers (portrayed in this animation), prior to getting in orbit around the Solar System’s inner world in December 2025.
For this second of 6 such flybys, BepiColombo requires to pass Mercury at a range of simply 200 km (124 miles) from its surface area, with a relative speed of 7.5 km/s (4.7 mi/s). In doing so, BepiColombo’s speed in relation to the Sun will be slowed by 1.3 km/s (0.8 mi/s), bringing it better towards Mercurial orbit.
“We have three slots available to perform correction maneuvers from ESA’s ESOC Mission Control in Darmstadt, Germany, in order to be in precisely the right place at the right time to use Mercury’s gravity as we need it,” discusses Elsa Montagnon, Mission Manager for BepiColombo.
“The first such slot was used to tune the desired flyby altitude of 200 km over the planet’s surface, ensuring the spacecraft would not be on a collision course with Mercury. Thanks to the meticulous work of our Flight Dynamics colleagues, this first trajectory correction executed very accurately such that further slots were not needed.”
Selfie- camera is go
During the flybys it is not possible to take high-resolution images with the primary science electronic camera due to the fact that it is protected by the transfer module while the spacecraft remains in cruise setup. However, BepiColombo’s 3 keeping an eye on cams (MCAMs) will be taking pictures.
Because BepiColombo’s closest method will be on the world’s nightside, the very first images in which Mercury will be lit up are anticipated to be at around 5 minutes after close method, at a range of about 800 km (497 miles).
The Mercury Transfer Module of the BepiColombo objective is geared up with 3 keeping an eye on cams (M-CAM), which supply black-and-white photos in 1024 x 1024 pixel resolution. The positions of the 3 cams are suggested with the orange icons, and example field of visions are highlighted. M-CAM 1 looks down the extended solar selection of the MTM, while M-CAM 2 and 3 are looking towards the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO). The MPO’s medium-gain antenna and magnetometer boom can be seen in M-CAM 2, as soon as released. M-CAM 3 has the possibility to see the MPO’s high-gain antenna. Since all deployable parts of the spacecraft are rotatable, a series of orientations might be seen in the real images. Credit: ESA
The cams supply black-and-white photos in 1024 x 1024 pixel resolution, and are placed on the Mercury Transfer Module such that they likewise record the spacecraft’s solar varieties and antennas. As the spacecraft alters its orientation throughout the flyby, Mercury will be seen passing behind the spacecraft structural aspects.
The very first images will be downlinked within a number of hours after closest method; the very first is anticipated to be readily available for public release throughout the afternoon of June23 Subsequent images will be downlinked throughout the rest of the day and a 2nd image release, making up numerous brand-new images, is anticipated by Friday early morning. All images are arranged to be launched to the general public in the Planetary Science Archive on Monday, June 27.
For the closest images it need to be possible to determine big effect craters and other popular geological functions connected to tectonic and volcanic activity such as scarps, wrinkle ridges, and lava plains in the world’s surface area. Mercury’s greatly cratered surface area records a 4.6 billion-year history of asteroid and comet barrage, which together with distinct tectonic and volcanic interests will assist researchers open the tricks of the world’s location in Solar System development.
