The mission

The mission is named after Italian mathematician and engineer Giuseppe Colombo, who was the first to calculate the maths behind Mercury's rotation and orbit.

He also helped NASA work out how to use the gravity of Venus to help get the Mariner 10 spacecraft to Mercury in the 1970s.

"It's a nice thing to see that mathematics and engineering honoured by naming the mission after him," Mr Nagle said.

BepiColombo is actually two spacecraft stuck together along with a propulsion system and a heat shield to protect its sensitive instruments from melting as it endures temperatures of up to 400 degrees Celsius.

The whole stack, which is about 6 metres high and has two 14-metre solar wings attached to the propulsion system, will travel as one for the seven-year journey.

Once it reaches its destination in December 2025 these components will separate into two individual spacecraft.

The European spacecraft, known as the Mercury Planetary Orbiter, is about the size of a bus with a solar panel. It will use an array of instruments such as cameras, spectrometers and altimeters to get a detailed picture of the planet's surface, atmosphere and magnetic field.

The Japanese component of the mission, known as the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter, is an octagonal-shaped craft about the size of small dinner table. It will also study the planet's magnetic field and how it interacts with the solar wind and interplanetary dust.

"Because you have two separate spacecraft they can complement each other's observations," Mr Nagle said.

"If one observes something interesting, the other one from its different perspective could also observe it using a different suite of instruments so you can get more information."

How it will get there

The BepiColombo mission will fly by Earth and Venus and use their gravity as a slingshot.

It will fly by Earth in 2020, then fly by Venus in 2020 and 2021, then fly by Mercury six times.

"The primary task will be to get enough speed to keep up and catch up with Mercury in its orbit around the sun.

"Mercury orbits around the sun every 88 days. It's quite a fast orbit, so [the mission] needs these gravity slingshot effects to get it from one place to another."

YouTube

BepiColombo's journey to Mercury

Animation visualising BepiColombo's 7.2 year journey to Mercury. This animation is based on a launch date of 5 October, marking the start of the launch windo...

Thanks to these manoeuvres it should be in the perfect position to go into orbit in December 2025.

When it does, the space craft will separate.

It will drop its propulsion system, the Japanese spacecraft will part from the European spacecraft, then the European spacecraft will ditch the sunshield.

The crafts' orbit will continue to tighten for another three months. The science program will start in March 2026 and continue for at least two years.

"A lot of that comes down to fuel to keep the spacecraft pointed where it needs to be pointing," Mr Nagle said.

"A lot of missions tend to be very conservative on their estimates for how long they will go for and they quite often go for a lot longer."

The science mission of Messenger for example, was extended another two years before it was sent hurtling to its fiery death.

Tracking its progress

Throughout it's journey, BepiColombo will be tracked by a number of ground stations around the world.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has tracking stations in Australia, Africa and South America.

"The ESA has a small station with a 35-metre antenna out near New Norcia not far from Perth," Mr Nagle said.

"They will be the main tracking station during the early phases of its cruise towards the planet and some of these initial fly-bys."

But, he said the Canberra Deep Space Communications Centre, which is part of NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN), will shadow the mission and provide back-up support in critical phases such as the fly-bys.

"That's when you would tend to use the larger capacity of the DSN to support the mission itself," Mr Nagle said.

"When the mission goes into its science phase [in March 2026] the DSN will play an ongoing role sending commands up to the spacecraft and getting data back and relaying it around the world to scientists."

Katie sent me that, I asked her to post it for you, but maybe she had gone to bed.

YouTube

The Sound (& Visions) of Silence

"Sharing the incomparable silent beauty of our planet with all our fellow travelers on this, our Spaceship Earth." @SergeyISS @Astro_Paolo @Astrokomrade "Our...

Thank you for posting it, Di.  Be sure to watch/listen in full screen if you can.  Adds a whole new dimension.

I did ! It is glorious! Thank you again.

I thought it was Metallica doing the cover!

Great version, either way!

Oh, and the pictures were great too!!

Just when you think you have it figured out, the universe throws you a curveball.