{"id":16423,"date":"2015-04-05T17:39:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-05T09:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/launch-of-bepicolombo-mission-to-mercury-slips-to-2017\/"},"modified":"2015-04-05T17:39:00","modified_gmt":"2015-04-05T09:39:00","slug":"launch-of-bepicolombo-mission-to-mercury-slips-to-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/launch-of-bepicolombo-mission-to-mercury-slips-to-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Launch of BepiColombo mission to Mercury slips to 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Artist's
Artist\u2019s concept of the BepiColombo mission, showing the European-built Mercury Planetary Orbiter (top) and the Japanese Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (bottom). Credit: ESA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The launch of a nearly $2 billion joint mission robotic mission to Mercury by Europe and Japan will be delayed from next year to early 2017 to account for late deliveries of critical components and scientific instrumentation, according to the European Space Agency.<\/p>\n

The BepiColombo mission, comprising two main spacecraft built in Europe and Japan, will still reach Mercury in January 2024.<\/p>\n

The new launch window \u2014 determined by the positions of the planets \u2014 opens on Jan. 27, 2017, and extends for one month, ESA announced March 30. The launch was previously set for July 2016.<\/p>\n

Mission managers completed BepiColombo\u2019s critical design review March 25 and decided to put off the launch for six months.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the result of delays in the procurement of critical units and the availability of some payloads, a decision was taken to opt for a later launch opportunity in order to minimize the operational risk to this ambitious dual mission,\u201d ESA said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Another launch opportunity is available in mid-2017 to allow BepiColombo to still get to Mercury in 2024.<\/p>\n

BepiColombo will launch on an Ariane 5 rocket from the Guiana Space Center in South America to kick off a seven-year cruise through the inner solar system. The European and Japanese components will blast off with a carrier spacecraft called the Mercury Transfer Module, which will carry ion engines to guide the mission on the journey to Mercury.<\/p>\n

\"A
A mock-up of the BepiColombo composite spacecraft in launch configuration undergoes shaker testing in July 2012. Credit: ESA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When packaged inside the Ariane 5\u2019s payload fairing, the three-part spacecraft stack will measure about the size of a moving van.<\/p>\n

The spacecraft will return to the vicinity of Earth in July 2018 for a gravity boost to slingshot the probe closer to the sun. BepiColombo will spiral toward Mercury with two flybys of Venus in September 2019 and May 2020, followed by five Mercury encounters between 2020 and 2023.<\/p>\n

BepiColombo\u2019s transit module will be jettisoned just before it steers into orbit around Mercury on Jan. 1, 2024. The mission\u2019s Japanese and European components \u2014 each fully functioning spacecraft \u2014 will separate and fly into different orbits for at least one year of observations, looking at the planet\u2019s cratered surface, investigating its origin, probing its interior, examining its tenuous atmosphere, studying its magnetic field, and timing Mercury\u2019s orbit around the sun to test Albert Einstein\u2019s theory of general relativity.<\/p>\n

Mercury will fly around the sun four times during BepiColombo\u2019s one-year prime mission. The orbiters should have enough fuel for a one-year extension.<\/p>\n

BepiColombo\u2019s Japanese section \u2014 known as the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter \u2014 is about the size of a compact car. It will probe Mercury\u2019s magnetic field and atmosphere from a highly elliptical orbit.<\/p>\n

ESA\u2019s Mercury Planetary Orbiter will fly closer to the planet\u2019s surface, measuring Mercury\u2019s terrain and composition.<\/p>\n

\"BepiColombo's
BepiColombo\u2019s Mercury Planetary Orbiter is seen inside a clean room at ESA\u2019s test center in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. Credit: ESA \u2013 A. Le Floc\u2019h<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BepiColombo will be the first mission to Mercury by Europe and Japan, and the second to orbit the fleet-footed planet after NASA\u2019s Messenger spacecraft.<\/p>\n

First proposed to ESA in the 1990s, BepiColombo is one of the most difficult space missions ever attempted by Europe and the most ambitious probe ever sent to Mercury. Powered by ion engines and shielded to withstand scorching temperatures of nearly 700 degrees Fahrenheit at Mercury, BepiColombo has endured redesigns, upgrades and delays that have sent the mission\u2019s cost more than 50 percent higher than original estimates.<\/p>\n

ESA officials intended BepiColombo to launch on a medium-class Soyuz rocket, but the spacecraft outgrew the capacity of the Soyuz, forcing it to lift off on the more expensive Ariane 5.<\/p>\n

Technicians in February mated BepiColombo\u2019s European orbiter and transfer module for the first time at ESA\u2019s test center in the Netherlands. Japan\u2019s magnetospheric probe is due to arrive at ESA in April for final tests.<\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Artist\u2019s concept of the BepiColombo mission, showing the European-built Mercury Planetary Orbiter (top) and the Japanese Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (bottom). Credit: ESA The launch of a nearly $2 billion joint mission robotic mission to Mercury by Europe and Japan will be delayed from next year to early 2017 to account for late deliveries of critical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2039,2040],"class_list":["post-16423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-bepicolombo","tag-mercury"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16423"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16423\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}