European probe to Mercury reaches Venus, first of two flyby’s | NOW

The European mission to Mercury, BepiColombo, reached the planet Venus for the first time on Thursday at 5.58 am, the European space agency ESA reports. The probe flew past 10,720 kilometers. It’s the first of two flyby’s, where the probe uses Venus’s gravity to catapult itself towards Mercury.

During the flyby, a number of BepiColombo instruments were already turned on, to be able to conduct research into the environment and atmosphere of Venus. ESA has attempted to take pictures of the planet using small cameras on board the probe. The large camera on the probe only turns on later.

BepiColombo performs flyby’s to use the gravity of planets to get to Mercury. If the probe had been launched directly towards the sun, it would be moving too fast by the sun’s gravity. BepiColombo would then shoot past Mercury.

By catapulting itself with the gravity of the earth and Venus, combined with a thrust motor that runs on solar energy, the speed of BepiColombo can be controlled. This allows ESA to ensure that the probe arrives at the target planet in good order.

BepiColombo will reach Mercury in October 2021

The spacecraft was launched in October 2018 launched orbiting the sun. In April of this year, the probe reached approximately 12,700 kilometers from Earth and used our planet’s gravity to bend its orbit toward the center of the solar system. This was the very first flyby from BepiColombo.

Thursday’s flyby was the second and the third will take place in August 2021, also around Venus. A month later the first flyby around Mercury takes place.

When the probe arrives at Mercury, it will split into two vehicles, one of which was built by the Japanese space agency JAXA. The BepiColombo mission will, among other things, investigate the structure of the inner planet of the solar system. She will also look at how planets in general can form when they orbit close to a star.

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