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BepiColombo, a multi-part spacecraft designed to study the Solar System's smallest, and most metallic planet, Mercury, is actively approaching the planet. After 8 years, 9 gravity assists, and the final seperation of the Mercury Transfer Module, BepiColombo is set to arrive in Mercurian orbit by early November, this year. Following orbital insertion, the Japanese Mio module and the European Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) will separate from each other and begin scientific operations to study Mercury.
Mio plans to study Mercury's magnetosphere, exosphere, and the Sun's inner heliosphere. Mio was engineered by JAXA, Japan's native space program, in contribution with ESA, the European Space Agency.
The European Space Agency also build the Mercury Planetary Orbiter, or MPO. The MPO will study Mercury's highly metallic surface, its extremely thin exospheric atmosphere, its metallic composition, and more.
Mercury requires more energy to reach than Saturn. While it is far closer to Earth than Saturn, it sits so deep within the Sun's gravitational pull, that it requires massive amounts of Δv (capacity of spacecraft to change velocity in m/s)
More updates will follow as BepiColombo prepares to study one of the most interesting celestial bodies in our Solar System.
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