The European - Japanese collaborative foreign mission BepiColombo has completed itsscheduled flyby of Earthon its way to its objective major planet , Mercury . The flyby , which take place on April 10 , was a necessary maneuver to use Earth ’s sombreness to sling the space vehicle towards the center of the Solar System .
You might conceive this would be counterintuitive ; should n’t it be easy to just go towards the Sun ? The answer is no : Anything launched from Earth starts from the same speed that keeps our satellite from falling into the Sun . To move inwards in the Solar System , space vehicle have to be slow down down , and scientist make for out this can be done with carefully planned flybys of satellite . So the mission used Earth as a supernal brake , using our planet ’s gravitational pull to slow down down and bend its flight towards the inner portions of the Solar System . Luckily it was successful , as this was just the first of BepiColombo ’s nine flybys to get to Mercury .
It took some beautiful image of our planet as it made its closest approach , coming less than 12,700 kilometers ( 7,890 miles ) from Earth ’s aerofoil at 04:25am UTC , before bidding leave to Earth .
The maneuver did not want any interposition from the team monitor it from Earth , though they had to keep a tight eye on it as the space vehicle hybridise Earth ’s shadow for 34 heart - wracking minutes , where it discontinue incur energy from the Sun .
“ This occultation form was the most frail part of the flyby , with the spacecraft passing through the shadow of our planet and not receiving any lineal sun for the first meter after launch , ” Elsa Montagnon , BepiColombo Spacecraft Operations Manager for ESA , said in astatement .
“ It is always nerve - wracking to be intimate a spacecraft ’s solar panels are not bathe in sunshine . When we saw the solar cell had restarted to mother electrical current , we know BepiColombo was eventually out of Earth ’s shadow and quick to go on its interplanetary journey . ”
The flyby allowed the spacecraft to “ stretch its peg ” as it conducted measurements using its suite of 16 tool . The mensuration will be used to refine the standardization of the instruments that will be used when it finally commence its mission in 2025 . Made up of two satellites , the delegacy will study the magnetic field of Mercury , as well as its internal bodily structure and surface to interpret how the minor planet in the Solar System hail to be .
“ Today was of course very unlike to what we could have imagine only a couple of months ago , ” said Johannes Benkhoff , ESA ’s BepiColombo Project Scientist , who watch the mathematical operation from home due to the current lockdown . “ We are all pleased that the flyby went well and that we could run several scientific instruments , and we are looking forward to receiving and analysing the datum . These will also be useful to prepare for the next flyby , when BepiColombo will swing past Venus in October . ”
