(Image from AFP PHOTO / EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY (ESA)),
The Mercury probe has begun the dangerous phase of orbital insertion after traveling over 8 years and more than 10 billion kilometers to reach its destination.
Foreign news agencies report that the spacecraft on the BepiColombo mission, a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), officially started its Mercury approach phase on Thursday (3 Sep) after an 8-year journey.
ESA stated this is among the most challenging planetary orbital insertions because Mercury's small mass and weak gravity compared to the Sun require the spacecraft to precisely shed velocity to avoid falling into the Sun or drifting away into space.
BepiColombo has traveled over 10 billion kilometers, performing nine flybys of Mercury to adjust speed and finely tune its trajectory.
On Thursday, the probe successfully unlocked mechanisms to separate its two exploration satellites automatically from the propulsion module, with confirmation signals reaching the control center in Germany nearly two hours later due to the vast distance.
The probe is scheduled to enter Mercury's orbit on 21 Nov, then separate the two satellites into their designated orbits on 9–10 Dec, before beginning full scientific data collection next spring.
The two satellites include ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO), which will approach the surface at about 480 kilometers altitude to conduct high-resolution surface exploration and data collection.
Meanwhile, JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (Mio) will orbit in a more elliptical path up to 11,000 kilometers away, studying Mercury’s space environment and magnetic field.
This project employs 16 advanced scientific instruments with a budget over 1.7 billion euros to unravel mysteries about Mercury’s iron core, magnetic field, and surface craters—Mercury being the closest rocky planet to the Sun and one of the least studied in the solar system.
Follow international news:https://www.thairath.co.th/news/foreign
Source:cna