European aviation agency launched Mercury exploration program

The Mercury exploration program called BepiColombo of the European aviation agency was approved by the agency's Scientific Program Committee on March 16. Currently, this program will conduct technology implementation phase to prepare for the launch in August 2013.

The BepiColombo program is Europe's next project to explore planets in the solar system and it is done in cooperation with Japan.

The pair of exploration ships, one used to explore Mercury and one used to study Mercury's rights, will reach Mercury after a 6-year journey to the inside of the solar system to perform Large-scale and detailed studies have never been done on the planet.

The European Space Agency (ESA) will be responsible for the construction of the MPO probe and the Japan Space Exploration Agency (JAXA) will undertake the construction of the exploration ship from Mercury MMO. The Mercury MTM conversion module is also undertaken by ESA to provide the necessary electrical and chemical repulsion to make the journey to Mercury. These three modules will be assembled together to form a composite probe.

MPO ships will carry a set of 11 very sophisticated scientific equipment. Ten of them are made by leading scientists through the national fund of member states of ESA and a device made by the Russian Federation.

The MMO will carry five modern scientific experimental devices that are also made by leading scientists funded by the national fund. One of the five devices was built in Europe and the rest were Japanese. Europe also provides major support in making Japanese-made equipment.

Simulation image of two BepiColombo exploration ships: Mercury probe (MPO) and explorer ship from Mercury (MMO). MPO will orbit Mercury on an orbit of 400 to 1500 km above Mercury's surface. MMO will fly in orbit with a height of 400 to 1200 Km. The inclination and eccentricity of these orbits has been optimized to study this planet and its magnetosphere in a very high temperature environment around Mercury. (Photo: European aviation agency ESA: C.Carreau)

After a period of seeking a contractor for the project started in 2001, ESA is now ready to grant the main contractor to Astrium GmbH (in the southern city of Friedrichshafen) to conduct the program implementation phase. BepiColombo consists of designing tasks for the program, designing, developing and combining modules together into a conjugated ship. Astrium GmbH still provides technical assistance during the launch phase and the ship's mission phase when it has entered Mercury's orbit.

Flying to Mercury and launching a probe into orbit around Mercury is a very difficult task due to the gravity of the sun. BepiColombo combine ship will fly to Mercury, the planet is only explored only by NASA's Mariner 10 probe, in a completely new way.

During his journey, the BepiColombo combined ship will skillfully utilize the gravity of the moon, the earth, Venus and Mercury's own combined with the thrust created by solar electric repulsion. . Solar electric repulsion takes advantage of magnetic phenomena and electricity to propel a ship into space. The electricity generated by the spacecraft's solar panels will make atoms positively charged in the cavity. These atoms are pulled back from the spacecraft and then pushed by thrust from the spacecraft. This phenomenon is similar to the phenomenon when we put two magnets with two different poles close together, they will push each other. This innovative combination of the light thrust of the universe with the help of gravity has been proven effective through ESA's SMART-1 experiment program.

During the process of advancing to Mercury, the conversion module will be separated. At that time, the module containing two probes will use traditional rocket engines and techniques of "catching a weak fixed boundary" to bring this module to orbit around Mercury's polarity. When the MMO ships into its orbit, the MPO will detach and lower its altitude with chemical repulsion to achieve the right height as its mission. Observations from the fund will last at least one year according to the earth calendar.

Controlling the probe in a harsh environment on Mercury is really a technological challenge. Mercury is the closest planet to the sun and direct solar radiation shines on the probe 10 times larger than the earth's radiation.

Furthermore, Mercury's surface with a temperature of up to 470 ^° C not only reflects solar radiation and also emits infrared radiation. Therefore, the probe will have to withstand extremely high temperature conditions.

This is one of the decisive factors for the design of the probe. For example, it will affect the multi-layer design design to protect the probe and affect the radiator parts of the probe.

The Kiet