This probe is on a mission to say hi to the least visited planet in our solar system ⬇️
, in three dimensions, were approved in 2000. ESA then issued a request for proposal for the BepiColombo MPO payload in 2004. The payload is the part of the spacecraft that performs the main functions of the mission, including scientific investigations. The payload instruments were selected later that year.
The launch date was pushed back several times. A target of July 2014 was delayed to August 2015 after Astrium looked at the development of several components of the spacecraft and determined they couldn't make the earlier deadline. Subsequent delays in different parts of the mission development pushed the launch date back to 2016, 2017 and then 2018.
This is where BepiColombo's namesake comes in. Giuseppe"Bepi" Colombo was then a celestial mechanics researcher at Padua University in Italy. He showed that after a spacecraft made one flyby past Mercury, it would go into a 176-day orbit around the sun. Luckily, this is exactly double the 88-day Mercury year, making it easy for the spacecraft to return to Mercury repeatedly with just minor orbital modifications.
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