BepiColombo’s brief rendezvous with Mercury had to, unfortunately, come to an end, and the pair will not meet again until the spacecraft’s fourth gravity assist on September 5, 2024.In the meantime, the spacecraft has a tough challenge ahead as it gears up for its upcoming “thrust arcs” sequence in August. During a six-week period, BepiColombo will gradually fire up its electric propulsion system to brake against the powerful gravitational pull of the Sun.
“We are already working intensively on preparing for this long thruster arc, increasing communications and commanding opportunities between the spacecraft and ground stations, to ensure a fast turnaround between thruster outages during each sequence,” Santa Martinez Sanmartin, ESA’s BepiColombo mission manager, said in the statement.The Sun’s gravity is what makes Mercury so hard to reach, with BepiColombo being only the third spacecraft to travel to the solar system’s most inner planet.
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