A complex Mercury mission begins its epic journey space The six-year-old voyage encountered serious thrust problems that controllers said could jeopardize plans to study the closest planet to Earth sun.
Bepi Colombo, joint European and Japanese delegation, will arrive at Mercury on September 5, the first of three crucial flybys designed to put the robotic spacecraft on the right track to orbit Earth next year. In October 2025, its two science probes – one operated by the European Space Agency and the other by NASA Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency – Will be split from a mod and study the surface and magnetic fields of planets.
But whether these scientific operations can still go ahead as planned is uncertain. During an exercise on April 26, the electric propulsion module, which runs on solar energy, did not provide enough power for the spacecraft’s thrusters. According to the European Space Agency. About 11 days later, engineers restored the spacecraft’s thrust to nearly its previous level, but still 10 percent lower.
“A team of experts is working tirelessly to understand the root cause of the problem and the further impact on the rest of the orbit,” ESA spokesperson Camille Bello told Mashable.
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Mercury is probably the best-studied of the rocky worlds in the solar system.
Image credit: NASA/JHU Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
To accommodate the spacecraft’s lower thrust levels, the team extended the duration of the propulsion arc so the spacecraft could get back on track planned flyby Between September 2025 and January 2025.
“We knew we were dealing with a power supply issue for the Mercury transmission module,” Bello said. “The electric thrusters themselves are fine.”
Mix and match speed of light
HG Perhaps the most studied of the rocky worlds in the solar system. Its temperature is even harder to reach than Saturn, and it hasn’t been explored like other planets around the sun.There were only two spacecraft before; NASA The mission has flown to “Planet Swift,” named for its rapid speed around the sun.
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Bepi Colombointroduced in October 2018 Taking off from the French Space Center in South America aboard an Ariane 5 rocket, the mission aims to study ice-filled polar craters, the planet’s magnetic field and mysterious “voids” on its surface.Mercury’s shell is covered ancient lava flowpockmarked by space rocks over the past 4 billion years or so.
By expanding their understanding of Mercury’s composition, atmosphere and magnetism, scientists can better understand how rocky Earth-like planets form.
But this is not the first difficulty BepiColombo has encountered.Last year, mission controllers performed a Major course correction to compensate for previous thruster outages. Without it, BepiColombo could have strayed about 15,000 miles off course and onto the wrong side of the Earth, according to ESA.
Because of the difficulty of entering Mercury’s orbit, the mission will require multiple years of continuous flybys.
Image source: European Space Agency
missionary Many years of continuous flying This is necessary because of how difficult it is to reach Mercury. To get into orbit around a planet, a spacecraft needs to travel slowly enough to be pulled in by Mercury’s gravity. Too fast and it will skip right over. The problem is that as the spacecraft gets closer to the sun, it speeds up like a bicycle going downhill.
Slowing down in the vacuum of space is no easy task.The elaborate design of swinging around the planet is One way spacecraft burns energy No need to carry too much fuel or else you will Make the spacecraft too heavy Start first.
If mission control can adequately resolve the spacecraft’s power issues, science operations could begin in the spring of 2026.
