A pair of spacecraft draw closer to Mercury after nearly decade-long voyage
Summary
Two spacecraft called BepiColombo, a joint mission by Europe and Japan, are nearing Mercury after almost ten years of travel. They separated from their main ship and will enter orbit around Mercury later this year to study the planet in detail.Key Facts
- BepiColombo launched in 2018 and has traveled over 6 billion miles to reach Mercury.
- The spacecraft separated from their main cruiser and are about 2 million miles from Mercury.
- They will enter Mercury’s orbit in November and split up in December to study the planet from different heights.
- This mission follows NASA’s Messenger, the only other spacecraft to explore Mercury.
- BepiColombo will study Mercury’s magnetic field, interior, and surface features like craters and volcanic plains.
- Mercury has extreme temperatures, very hot in the day and icy cold at the poles in shadowed craters.
- The spacecraft is designed to survive very high heat near the sun.
- The mission’s budget is about 2 billion US dollars, mostly funded by the European Space Agency.
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