The probes of the BepiColombo mission, flying to Mercury, successfully performed the first gravitational maneuver near their target, flying at a minimum distance of 199 kilometers from the planet. During the flyby, the spacecraft received a number of images of the surface of Mercury and other scientific data, it is reported on the ESA website.
BepiColombo became the third interplanetary mission to explore Mercury. It was launched in October 2018, when the European MPO (Mercury Planetary Orbiter), the Japanese MMO (Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter) and the MTM flight module, which will deliver the vehicles to the planet, went into space. After arriving at Mercury, the spacecraft will explore its surface, search for ice deposits, determine the structure of the planet and the properties of its magnetosphere and exosphere.
Image Source: ESA
For three years, Bepikolombo performed several gravitational maneuvers near Earth and Venus, and on October 1, 2021, at 02:34 Moscow time, the vehicles performed the first gravitational maneuver near Mercury, being at a minimum distance of 199 kilometers from the surface of the planet. During the flyby, scientific instruments collected data about the planet, but the survey was conducted only from a distance of about a thousand kilometers from Mercury, since the flyby passed over the night side of the planet. The resulting images show the craters and plains of the planet, as well as elements of the apparatus, such as antennas.
Image source: ESA / BepiColombo
Image source: ESA / BepiColombo
The main scientific program will begin in early 2026 and will last a year. Until then, the spacecraft will have to make five more flights past Mercury, and in December 2025, the probes will enter working polar orbits.
The fact that Bepikolombo will be able to learn new things about the planet closest to the Sun can be read in the material "To Mercury for water."
Alexander Voityuk