Ground teams cannot restore the spacecraft's full thrust, forcing it to take a different trajectory on its way to the innermost planet.
The European Space Agency is having to delay the arrival of its BepiColombo mission to Mercury after the twin probes suffered a glitch that prevented it from operating at full power. The spacecraft will have to perform an unexpected maneuver as a result, delaying its arrival at Mercury by nearly a year.
The mission had been scheduled for a maneuver on April 26, but the spacecraft’s Transfer Module, responsible for generating thrust, failed to deliver enough electrical power to the thrusters. The team behind the mission identified unexpected electric currents between BepiColombo’s solar array and the unit responsible for extracting power and distributing it to the rest of the spacecraft, according to ESA.
This will also be the first time BepiColombo flies over Mercury’s poles, helping to adjust the spacecraft’s trajectory to match the orbit of the planet . The spacecraft is also due to snap some epic shots of Mercury’s south pole, which are expected on Thursday. The spacecraft will perform nine gravity assist maneuvers in total: one around Earth, two around Venus, and six around Mercury. The mission carried out its first flyby of Mercury in October 2021 and returned gorgeous
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