Packing MPO
Date: 12 April 2018
Satellite: BepiColombo
Depicts: Mercury Planetary Orbiter
Location: European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), Noordwijk, the Netherlands
Copyright: ESA–C. Carreau
The Mercury Planetary Orbiter of the ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury during the final stages of packing ahead of its journey from ESA in the Netherlands to Europe's spaceport in Kourou. It is pictured here with the shipping container in the background, which will subsequently be lowered over the spacecraft and the platform it is sitting on.
The spacecraft's 3.7m wide radiator side faces the viewer; this will be mounted with highly reflective fins to minimize absorption of heat radiated from Mercury, and to allow radiation towards deep space. The three oval shapes indicate startrackers, which will be used for navigation. The rectangular panel at the bottom close to centre is the PHEBUS science instrument, an ultraviolet spectrometer. It is covered here with ground support equipment. Small thruster units are also visible in each corner. The magnetometer and medium gain antenna booms are folded on the top; the high gain antenna is partially seen to the left.
