The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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This labyrinth of power, data and propellant lines is found inside the Mercury Transfer Module, the powerful haulage vehicle tasked with transporting ESA’s BepiColombo mission on its 7.5-year journey to the innermost planet.
This is the flight model, which will be among the attractions on show at Sunday’s ESTEC Open Day. The two wrinkled-looking silver spheres are propellant tanks.
The main challenge of flying to Mercury is to slow down enough to fall into the Sun’s gravitational pull, the strength of which grows with proximity.
The module will use a combination of chemical and electric thrusters to make the trek, interspersed with gravity-assist swingbys of Earth, Venus and Mercury itself.
A pair of solar wings, adding up to 33 sq m in total, will generate the power needed to keep the electric thrusters firing.
The module will sit at the bottom of the BepiColombo stack, next to ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter, which will be attached in turn to JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter.
BepiColombo is due to be launched by Ariane 5 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana in 2016.