BepiColumbo about to do third Mercury flyby
In its long journey to get into orbit around Mercury, BepiColumbo needs to do nine different flybys of the inner planets, with third fly-by of Mercury coming up on June 19, 2023.
The mission launched into space on an Ariane 5 from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou in October 2018 and is making use of nine planetary flybys: one at Earth, two at Venus, and six at Mercury, to help steer into Mercury orbit.
After this flyby, the mission will enter a very challenging part of its journey to Mercury, gradually increasing the use of solar electric propulsion through additional propulsion periods called ‘thrust arcs’ to continually brake against the enormous gravitational pull of the Sun. These thrust arcs can last from a few days up to two months, with the longer arcs interrupted periodically for navigation and manoeuvre optimisation.
The spacecraft will zip past Mercury at a height of 147 miles. If all goes well, this dual orbiter mission, carrying both a European and a Japanese orbiter will arrive in 2025, beginning a planned three year mission in different complementary orbits.
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In its long journey to get into orbit around Mercury, BepiColumbo needs to do nine different flybys of the inner planets, with third fly-by of Mercury coming up on June 19, 2023.
The mission launched into space on an Ariane 5 from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou in October 2018 and is making use of nine planetary flybys: one at Earth, two at Venus, and six at Mercury, to help steer into Mercury orbit.
After this flyby, the mission will enter a very challenging part of its journey to Mercury, gradually increasing the use of solar electric propulsion through additional propulsion periods called ‘thrust arcs’ to continually brake against the enormous gravitational pull of the Sun. These thrust arcs can last from a few days up to two months, with the longer arcs interrupted periodically for navigation and manoeuvre optimisation.
The spacecraft will zip past Mercury at a height of 147 miles. If all goes well, this dual orbiter mission, carrying both a European and a Japanese orbiter will arrive in 2025, beginning a planned three year mission in different complementary orbits.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
To me, all these precision fly by maneuvers over many years is a symptom of undersized launchers. Given the time value of money and the man hours involved over the years it seems that an equivalent mission from a Falcon heavy could have producing results years ago instead of still waiting for the main event.
They Mercury on Mercury is just too High
John hare,
The problem is that the delta-v for getting into Mercury’s orbit is almost as high as launching into low Earth orbit. The flybys are an attempt to use planetary gravity (various planets) to slow down rather than send a booster-sized rocket to slow the orbiter into orbit. Since it is unmanned, and since our probes are fairly reliable, taking this much time to get somewhere interesting has become routine practice.
See this delta-v chart as an example of what it takes to get around the Solar System (please note that these are approximations based upon transfer orbits being the Hohmann transfer orbit, which (despite Hohmann’s intention) is not necessarily the lowest delta-v way to get around the Solar System*):
http://i.imgur.com/SqdzxzF.png
The orbital mechanics who designed this route used what they had at the time. If Starship becomes operational, then we should expect either a larger payload or a more brute force route for the next Mercury probe.
_________________
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hohmann_transfer_orbit
Edward,
I am well aware of the reasons and methods of gravity assists. I am also well aware of the time value of information and the costs of keeping a team functional for extended periods of time. Without running the hard numbers, It is not obvious that all the meandering around saved money compared to buying a larger launcher, or using orbital refueling.. And it certainly reduced the effective duration of the mission. (time on station)
John hare,
The launcher large enough to lift the propellant needed to avoid these maneuvers does not yet exist. Orbital refueling is still a goal for the future. The time on station may not be limited by the stationkeeping propellant, it may be limited by the willingness for ESA and JAXA to continue funding the mission after it reaches the point of diminishing returns.
Missions have a limited duration. Without these limits we would still have the Lewis and Clark mission in progress, as happens with all too many government programs (government missions). Despite all of rural America having been electrified many decades ago, the Rural Electrification Act continues to fund Rural Development in the Department of Agriculture.
So I stand corrected. Some missions become their own empires that never die their natural death but plague us forever with unnecessary costs to We the American Taxpayer.
*Sigh*