A dataset provided by the European Space Agency

BepiColombo Mission Overview

BepiColombo is Europe's first mission to Mercury. It has been defined as a collaboration between ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), executed under ESA leadership. The mission comprises two spacecraft: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO), built by ESA, and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO), built by JAXA, which are dedicated to the detailed study of the planet and its magnetosphere respectively. Their orbits have therefore been optimised accordingly.
The MPO is a three-axis-stabilized and nadir-pointing spacecraft designed for an operational lifetime of one Earth year (with a possible extension of one year). The MPO will be placed in an inertially fixed polar orbit; the spacecraft has one axis aligned with the nadir direction to allow continuous nadir observation of the planet. The MPO’s 2.3-hour low-eccentricity orbit will provide excellent spatial resolution over the entire planet’s surface. The MPO science payload will investigate Mercury’s interior, surface composition and morphology,intrinsic magnetic field, the composition of the exosphere and the coupling between all of these aspects. The launch of the MPO-MMO composite is planned for April 2018 on an Ariane 5from Kourou. Approximately 6.5 years later, after two Venus and four Mercury flybys, the spacecraft will perform its final approach to Mercury. BepiColombo will arrive at Mercury in 2024, and gather data during a 1-year nominal mission,with a possible 1-year extension.
See instrument context products for more information on the instruments.Information on Mission Phases to be added here.