Artist's view of BebiColombo’s planetary orbiter

This artist’s impression shows ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) that, together with a second spacecraft, the Japanese Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO), makes the BepiColombo mission at Mercury.

The MPO will study the planet itself and, among several investigations, make complete maps of Mercury in several wavelengths. It will also map the planet's mineralogy and elemental composition and determine whether the planet has a molten core.

Note: This artist's impression reflects the spacecraft concept of the time when it was published. The design has changed in the meantime and thus this image is no longer up-to-date. For the latest images of BepiColombo, please check the most recently added images in our gallery.