BepiColombo Status Options

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

Excerpt from a News article by Jenny Hogan in the December 1, 2005, issue of Nature:

"The [funding] situation has led to speculation that BepiColombo, a mission destined for a 2013 launch to Mercury, might be cancelled. 'That is the big danger painted in the sky,' says Karl-Heinz Glassmeier, principal investigator on one of the instruments proposed for the spacecraft.

"Nerves were set jangling about the project, which also involves the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, after it was postponed because the initial design was too heavy. That problem seems to have been solved, but officials say the estimated cost of the mission, at 600 million [euros] to 650 million [euros], is still more than 100 million [euros] above target."

Reference:

Europe's cash crisis puts space plans under threat
Jenny Hogan
Nature 438, 542-543 (2005)
doi:10.1038/438542a
Full Text

[cndwrld]

The information I have is on this other ESA page here.

Key mission dates

Date Mission event
15 August 2015 Launch
14 August 2016 Earth flyby
25 November 2017 First Venus flyby
18 July 2018 Second Venus flyby
15 February 2019 First Mercury flyby
07 November 2019 Second Mercury flyby
26 January 2021 Third Mercury flyby
08 March 2021 Fourth Mercury flyby
27 January 2022 Arrival at Mercury
27 April 2023 End of nominal mission
27 April 2024 End of extended mission

[Doug M.]

15 August 2015 Launch
14 August 2016 Earth flyby
25 November 2017 First Venus flyby
18 July 2018 Second Venus flyby
15 February 2019 First Mercury flyby
07 November 2019 Second Mercury flyby
26 January 2021 Third Mercury flyby
08 March 2021 Fourth Mercury flyby
27 January 2022 Arrival at Mercury
27 April 2023 End of nominal mission
27 April 2024 End of extended mission

Seven! flybys! That has to be a record. MESSENGER only had three -- one each with Mercury, Venus, and Earth.

And that's while using an ion drive. I know the delta-V to climb down to Mercury is really high, but still...

But: googling, I see that the total spacecraft mass is 1350 kg -- 1100 kg for MPO and 250 kg for MMO. That's almost three times the mass of Messenger, a relatively svelte 485 kg. So I guess they found that with the flybys and the ion drive they could deliver a lot more probe.


Doug M.