BepiColombo, after the secrets of Mercury
BepiColombo, after the secrets of Mercury
Mercury is the planet closest to the Sun (it gets closer to just over 46 million kilometers during its perihelion) and it is also the smallest in the Solar System, and those circumstances mean that its study with space probes is more complicated than it usually is. be habitual in this type of missions. The ESA, in conjunction with the Japanese space agency (JAXA), will launch its first satellite to the planet on October 20, aboard an Ariane 5 from Kourou, and will do so with the aim of discovering many of the secrets that Mercury still keeps jealously.
BepiColombo, which is the name of the mission, will be the third probe to visit the planet after those of NASA Mariner 10, in the mid-70s, and MESSENGER, between 2011 and 2015. It will take more than seven years to reach its destination , assisted by a gravitational assistance on Earth, two on Venus and six on Mercury itself until reaching its scientific orbit, scheduled for March 2026, a very long journey for a planet that is closer to Earth than, for example, Jupiter. But Mercury presents its own challenges.
Mauro Casale, head of development of the mission's scientific ground segment, sums up everything that ESA and the European aerospace industry have had to innovate in the satellite affirming that "we could say that BepiColombo is currently promoting space technology by having built a satellite capable of flying in a 'pizza oven' and withstanding the heat on Mercury. " 85% of the technology aboard BepiColombo had to be designed specifically for it, because those extreme conditions on the planet made it impossible for technology from other missions to be reused.
BepiColombo approaching Mercury. (Photo.ESA / ATG medialab / NASA / JPL)
"Temperature changes that go from -170º to 450º C, a solar radiation ten times more intense and an infrared flow 20 times higher than in the Earth, very intense ultraviolet radiation, the solar wind blowing at a speed of 400 km / s , etc. ", Mauro details of an environment on the planet that forced us to redesign many BepiColombo components from scratch, especially from solar panels and their thermal insulation. In addition, it also uses a solar electric propulsion that is unprecedented for exploration missions of the Solar System of ESA. Throughout this process of construction of the satellite, 83 companies from twelve countries participated.
The challenges do not stop at technology. The scientific operations and what the mission will study in Mercury also present their own challenges. To begin with, BepiColombo is actually composed of two satellites: MPO (Mercury Planetary Orbiter) and MMO (Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter). The first is the one that will observe the planet from its orbit, studying composition, topography and morphology of its surface and its interior, and the second will focus on the study of the planet's environment and its magnetosphere. It will be the first time that two orbiters make coordinated and simultaneous observations from different points of the Mercury environment, with the operational difficulties that this entails.
The Spanish industry has participated in this development from the beginning. "The BepiColombo mission has been a challenge for the industry, since they have had to develop specific technologies to meet the demanding specifications of the mission." Says María del Pilar Román, of the CDTI, Spanish delegate to the Scientific Programs Committee of the ESA. He adds that "However, these challenges have resulted in having new products or training in technology areas that have opened up new business opportunities."
What the mission will try to solve is why Mercury is as we see it today, how it originated and evolved from then until today. To do this, it will study its surface and its interior, the composition and dynamics of its exosphere, the structure and dynamics of its magnetosphere and the origin of its magnetic field and, in passing, experiments will be carried out to test the theory of General Relativity of Einstein. Mauro offers more data on these scientific objectives: "BepiColombo will help us to better understand the formation and evolution of our Solar System and, in that way, it will contribute to our understanding of how the innermost planets of other extrasolar systems are formed and evolved. For example, one of the MESSENGER measurements seems to indicate that Mercury formed much farther from the Sun (even a little farther than Mars) and then approached at a later stage. "
The mission will seek confirmation of the existence of water ice and if it comes from comet impacts, for example, and will try to answer why its magnetic field is 400 km away. with respect to the center of the planet. All these scientific data will be received at ESAC, from where the scientific operations will be coordinated with the teams responsible for the instruments, the scientific programming of the mission will be carried out and the scientific data will be processed. In addition, operating a satellite so close to the Sun will also be a great learning experience for the agency itself. Mauro also points out that "since mission life is limited, it is very necessary that scientific operations are extremely optimized, not even a minute can be lost, so a high level of automation, a short reaction time and the maximum flexibility possible. "
The adventure of BepiColombo is about to begin. (Source: ESA)
.
.
SOURCE LINK ERESVIRAL.COM https://www.beviral.online
Comentarios
Publicar un comentario