images

BepiColombo's planetary orbiter

by

ESA/C.Carreau/Novapix

Reference

e-son25-03001

Date

2007-03-19

This artist's impression shows ESA's BepiColombo's Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) that, together with a second spacecraft, the Japanese Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO), makes the BepiColombo mission at Mercury. The MPO will study the planet itself and, among several investigations, it will make a complete map of Mercury at different wavelengths. It will also map the planet's mineralogy and elemental composition and determine whether the interior of the planet is molten or not.