15 Sep 2011

BepiColombo heading towards Mercury

Europe's first mission to probe the Solar System's innermost planet will depart in July 2014.

BepiColombo's sensors will completely map Mercury at different wavelengths, charting the planet's mineralogy and elemental composition.

It will reveal the planet's interior structure and probe Mercury's magnetic field.

ESA is leading the mission, flying it in cooperation with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

The mission's two orbiters will be injected into separate orbits around Mercury: ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter and Japan's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter. 
 
After signing, ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain said, "With BepiColombo, Europe continues to explore our Solar System.

BepiColombo launch contract signature, with Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA Director General (left), and Jean-Yves Le Gall, Arianespace Chairman and CEO (right), on 15 September 2011, in Paris.

"For the European Space Agency, it's also an excellent example of scientific teamwork, since we are sharing this experience with the Japanese space agency.

"After the successful launch of Herschel and Planck back in 2009 and before the launch of the ATV-3 and Alphasat next year, Ariane 5 again demonstrates its extreme flexibility, which will soon be complemented by Soyuz and Vega."

Jean-Yves Le Gall, Chairman and CEO of Arianespace, added: "We are both proud and honoured to be given this opportunity to support space science and serve the European Space Agency, teaming up with JAXA [Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency] on this programme."

(This article was originally published on ESA's Space Science Portal.)