Mercury's mysteries to be probed by British science
Staff Writer |
BepiColombo is the first European Space Agency mission to Mercury, the least explored planet in the inner Solar System, and will provide new insight into how the planet closest to the Sun formed and evolved.
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The spacecraft will travel 9 billion km taking 7 years to reach Mercury and is designed to survive extreme temperatures, from +450 to -180 degrees.
The mission is an outstanding example of international collaboration at the highest level between the European and Japanese space agencies. The UK’s involvement is managed and funded by the UK Space Agency.
The UK’s founding membership of ESA has given the UK a key role in this mission which will provide a unique science return and maintain the UK’s position at the forefront of space exploration by investing in the technology. Every £1 invested in ESA results in a £1 share in contracts for UK companies and universities.
In the early hours today a spacecraft made possible by the best of UK space science is set to blast off bound for Mercury.
The UK’s contribution to the mission:
The UK Space Agency funded, and University of Leicester designed and built the Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer (MIXS). This instrument will use novel X-ray optics to determine small-scale features on Mercury and find out what the planet’s surface is made of.
Airbus Defence and Space provided spacecraft structures, electrical and chemical propulsion systems and the systems which will separate the spacecraft modules on arrival at Mercury.
QinetiQ supplied the innovative electric propulsion system. A beam of charged particles are expelled from the spacecraft to propel it forward. Ion propulsion produces low levels of thrust very efficiently compared with conventional chemical rockets.
Thales Alenia Space UK supplied the Remote Interface Units that acquire sensor data and telemetry as well as driving the thrusters that control the spacecraft.
UK teams also provided a hardware contribution to the Finnish led Solar Intensity X-ray & particle spectrometer (SIXS). ■