What lessons should the BepiColombo space probe teach us?

The BepiColombo probe flew past Mercury on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, and is expected to transmit images of the surface of this rocky body, considered the poor relation of space exploration.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is set to release some highly anticipated images on Thursday morning, September 5. These are images of Mercury, the least known rocky planet in our solar system. These photos were taken Wednesday evening by the BepiColombo probe, which passed within 165 km of Mercury. This distance may seem far away, but it should be remembered that Mercury is located 92 million kilometers from Earth. The probe sending us these images flew away almost six years ago, in October 2018.

In these images, scientists hope to see craters, mountains, and lava plains. Mercury is, like Earth, a rocky planet, but like the Moon, it is covered in dust. This BepiColombo probe is the result of a collaboration between the European Space Agency and the Japanese Space Agency. Until now, only two American probes had approached Mercury, first in 1974, then in 2011.

Exploring Mercury remains a difficult task, because to go there the direct trajectory is impossible. Mercury is indeed a very small planet, three times smaller than the Earth. It is close to the sun, so if we sent a probe in a straight line, this probe would risk being captured by the gravity of the sun. The only option to place oneself in orbit around Mercury is to make detours, and to use the gravitational attraction of other planets to not risk being magnetized by the sun. The journey is for this reason very long.

BepiColombo, which is named after the Italian scientist who theorized this type of trajectory, will have to make several more loops before entering orbit around Mercury in November 2026. The probe is equipped with around fifteen measuring instruments to study Mercury’s magnetic environment and its atmosphere. For example, we know that it is very hot there, 167 degrees on average, but some areas are apparently icy. Furthermore, Mercury’s proximity to the Sun makes it a special object of study. By examining its composition and the gases that surround it, scientists hope to discover a little more about the origins of the solar system.