Artist’s impression of the BepiColombo spacecraft at Mercury. ESA have released the press on April 12, through the image of Mercury that the mission comprises ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter (foreground) and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (background) The image was taken by NASA’s Messenger spacecraft.
(Credits: Spacecraft: ESA/ATG medialab; Mercury: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington)
BepiColombo in cruise configuration
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.
BepiColombo stack
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.
Mercury Planetary Orbiter – top view
ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter, with the Sun-facing side of the solar array (left) visible. The flat panel at the right is the radiator. The main instrument panel that faces towards Mercury is out of view in this orientation.
(Credits: ESA/ATG medialab)