BepiColombo Launch & Cruise Phase Options

[nogal]

ESA announced that BepiColombo has initiated its first thrust arc, which will last 2 months.
The ion thrusters' maximum planed thrust for the entire journey is 250 mN, equivalent to the pull of 250 ants (!)
Fernando

[monty python]

Great news. And a cool selfie.

[nogal]

BepiColombo continues to work well. Here is an excerpt from the latest ESA release:

Following a series of tests conducted in space over the past five months, the ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission has successfully completed its near-Earth commissioning phase and is now ready for the operations that will take place during the cruise and, eventually, for its scientific investigations at Mercury.

And the release: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Sc...its_long_cruise

Fernando

[MahFL]

BepiColombo continues to work well. Here is an excerpt from the latest ESA release:

And the release: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Sc...its_long_cruise

Fernando

They mentioned some ongoing issues, but did not say what they were.

[bobik]

First Light of PHEBUS on BepiColombo MPO.

[nogal]

On June 17 BepiColombo used its on-board monitoring cameras to take some selfies.Here is the ESA release link
The release includes a link to a cool tool: BepiColombo Attitude Viewer I find it requires a screen larger than that of a mobile phone.
Fernando

[nogal]

An interesting ESA article with some details about Bepi Colombo's thermal environment and challenges:
"How we heat-proofed ESA's Mercury mission"

Fernando

[bobik]

There is apparently a public dashboard of the BepiColombo Quick-Look Analysis (QLA) web interface showing, among others, ground stations pass information. If they would complement it with more functionality and at least some generic spacecraft and instrument data, e.g. power consumption, temperature readings, telemetry events, data volumes, etc., this could become a quite innovative outreach tool and fascinating way to follow the BepiColombo expedition.

[nogal]

Despite the restrictions due to the current coronavirus crisis, ESA is preparing for the April 10's BepiColombo Earth flyby.
Celestial mechanics is, of course, immune to the virus and we are already within the critical two weeks before the flyby.
Here is an ESA article on this subject: http://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Spa...onavirus_crisis

Fernando

[Explorer1]

Some very impressive images came down showing Earth's rotation as it approaches, as seen on social media. The MTM external cameras were a good idea!

[MahFL]

Some very impressive images came down showing Earth's rotation as it approaches, as seen on social media. The MTM external cameras were a good idea!

I watched the ESA flyby simulation live.

[nogal]

Esa has released a short image sequence taken by the camera on the Japanese module.
Fernando

"BepiColombo's last close-up of Earth during flyby" http://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2...th_during_flyby

[antipode]

Wow! Love this sort of 'through the rigging' stuff.

Resolution is unimportant, its the perspective that is special.

Its like a better version of Rosetta's Mars flyby.

P

[Lucas]

Here is a video from the Kryoneri Observatory in Greece, showing BepiColombo during the flyby. Wow!

You don’t need a Facebook account to see it: https://www.facebook.com/athensobservatory/...56196052386495/

[nogal]

BepiColopmbo: The Earth Flyby collection, by ESA:
http://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2...Colombo_s_flyby
Fernando