The flight from Venus is necessary for the device to get acceleration to enter the orbit of Mercury
PARIS, August 10. /TASS/. The automatic spacecraft BepiColombo made a flyby near Venus on Tuesday, at 13:48 Central European time (15.48 Moscow time), taking pictures of it with its two cameras. This was reported by the European Space Agency (ESA).
The device, created by ESA in cooperation with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), crossed the space above the planet at an altitude of only 550 km. The black-and-white images were taken with a resolution of 1024 x 1024 pixels. The probe was photographing in the phases of passing over the planet and moving away from it. The first photos will arrive on Earth on August 10, and their main block will reach our planet on August 11.
As reported by ESA, " rushing past Venus, BepiColombo felt the heat of this planet. The light reflected from its surface heated its body to plus 50 degrees Celsius."
. @BepiColombo is feeling the heat as it swoops past the Venus dayside ️Sunlight reflected from Venus is heating the spacecraft by up to 50 degrees!
And the reaction wheels used to keep Bepi pointing straight are feeling the pull of the planet’s mighty gravity #VenusFlyby pic.twitter.com/vGX6ppxEzO
- ESA Operations (@esaoperations) August 10, 2021
The main goal of the BepiColombo mission is to explore Mercury, and it needs a flyby near Venus to get acceleration to enter the orbit of the first planet of the Solar System. During its mission, BepiColombo will perform at least nine gravitational maneuvers: one near Earth, two near Venus and six near Mercury.
On a" visit " to Venus
BepiColombo arrived at Venus just 33 hours after another space probe, Solar Orbiter, flew over it. It is designed to observe the polar regions of the Sun and will conduct detailed measurements of the heliosphere and the resulting solar wind.
"The flight of two spacecraft along Venus provides an unprecedented opportunity to study the environment of this planet from different points at the same time. And moreover, in areas that are usually not objects for special probes, " the ESA emphasizes. At the same time, the space agency recognizes that "it will take many months to compare and properly analyze the agreed measurement data obtained during two flights of space probes."
Another flyby of Solar Orbiter and BepiColombo is planned for each of these missions until the end of 2021. In the period from October 1 to 2, BepiColombo should fly 200 km from Mercury. On November 27, Solar Orbiter will fly near the Earth at a distance of 460 km. The probe will continue to make regular flights of Venus in order to gradually increase the inclination of its orbit in this way, which will allow it to better observe the unexplored polar regions of the Sun.
