BepiColombo - Reflexions

BepiColombo

BepiColombo A space mission to Mercury, designed by the ESA and its Japanese counterpart. It is named after the Italian mathematician Bepi Colombo (1920-1984) whose calculations enabled the repeated overflights of Mercury by the probe Mariner 10 in the 1970s. The European probe, which is due to be launched in April 2018 will not reach Mercury until 2024. The two vessels that make up the probe will be placed in two different orbits around Mercury. The objectives of the mission are being fine-tuned in accordance with analysis of data supplied by Messenger. But the main objective will be to study Mercury’s very weak atmosphere, the origin of its magnetic field, the chemical and mineralogical composition of its internal structure and its magnetosphere.