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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A portion of JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO) can be seen on top of ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) in this view of the BepiColombo spacecraft at ESA’s technical centre in May 2017.
One and a half of the MMO’s eight solar panels can be seen, with part of the high-gain antenna (the white dish) at the top.
The MPO is seen with the radiator to the far left; on the side facing the camera the black protrusion is the low-gain antenna. Underneath are two science instruments from the SERENA instrument package. The white circular instrument is SERENA-PICAM, an ion mass spectrometer acting as an all-sky camera for charged particles transported through Mercury’s environment. The cone-shaped instrument below is SERENA-MIPA, an ion analyser looking at how solar wind and magnetospheric ions precipitate towards the surface.