[DAWN] European and Japanese scientists Thursday unveiled the BepiColombo spacecraft ahead of its seven-year journey to Mercury, to explore one of the Solar System's most enigmatic planets.
Set for launch in 2018, BepiColombo will be the European Space Agency's (ESA) first mission to the closest rock to the Sun.
The craft has an unusual design, comprising a “stacked aircraft” carrying two orbiters — one European, the other Japanese — which will separate on arrival to go into different, but complementary orbits around Mercury.
BepiColombo aims to “follow up on many of the intriguing results of NASA's Messenger mission, probing deeper into Mercury's mysteries than ever before,” the ESA said.
The joint project with the Japanese agency JAXA, which has cost more than 1.3 billion euros ($1.48 billion), involves some 33 companies from 12 EU nations, as well as firms from the US and Japan.
It has been delayed several times, but the mission chiefs are now confident that it is on track to launch in October next year.
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