The BepiColombo Mission

BepiColombo facts and figures

An artist's impression of the MPO at Mercury

• Launch: Aug-2013
• Launch vehicle: Soyuz 2-1B/Fregat-M
• Launch mass: 2300 kg
• Operational mission: Nominally 1 year in Mercury orbit untill September 2020
• Orbits: Heliocentric transfer orbit to Mercury. On arival at Mercury the two orbiters which together constitute BepiColombo separate. The planetary orbiter (MPO) enters a polar orbit 400 × 1500 km, 2.3 hr period and the magnetospheric orbiter (MMO) polar orbit 400 × 12 000 km, 9.2 hr period.

Mission Objectives

• Origin and evolution of a planet close to the parent star.
• Mercury's form, interior structure, geology, composition and craters.
  Origin of Mercury's magnetic field.
• Test of Einstein's theory of general relativity. Mercury's vestigial atmosphere (exosphere): composition and dynamics.
• Mercury's magnetised envelope (magnetosphere): structure and dynamics.

External links

European Space agency (ESA)

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)