New artist’s views of the BepiColombo spacecraft that will be launched to Mercury in 2018
Artist’s impression of the BepiColombo spacecraft at Mercury. The mission comprises ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter (foreground) and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (background).
The image of Mercury was taken by NASA’s Messenger spacecraft.
The Mercury Transfer Module (foreground, with two large solar wings) carries the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (middle, with one solar wing pointing up) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (hidden inside the solar shield, on the far side) to Mercury.
Artist’s impression of the BepiColombo ‘stack’ as seen from above. JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter can be seen inside the sunshield at the top of the stack, with ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter below. The Mercury Transfer Module is at the bottom.
