On Saturday, October 20, 2018, the BepiColombo space probe set off on its journey to Mercury from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The 6.40 meters high and 4.1 tons heavy BepiColombo space probe consists of two spacecraft: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO), which was constructed by the European Space Agency, ESA, and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO), which was constructed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA. Both spacecraft will fly to Mercury together as a coupled system, but will be put onto separate orbits upon arrival. The MMO will study the magnetospheric interaction between the planet and the solar wind. The MPO will be lowered to a deeper orbit, which is ideal for the remote sensing of the planetary surface.
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Source: Phys.org