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
Go to topicThank you for liking
You have already liked this page, you can only like it once!
The BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter has a number of distinctive features, not least its 3.7 m wide radiator panel seen above. The radiator is designed to reflect heat directionally, allowing the spacecraft to fly at low altitude over the hot surface of the planet. Heat generated by spacecraft subsystems and payload components, as well as heat that comes from the Sun and Mercury and ‘leaks’ through the blankets into the spacecraft, is carried away to the radiator by heat pipes.
Most science instruments are mounted on the side of the spacecraft that will point at Mercury, with certain instruments or sensors located at the main radiator, to achieve the low detector temperatures needed for sensitive observations. For example, the rectangular panel with the small cylindrical protrusion at the bottom centre is the PHEBUS instrument, an ultraviolet spectrometer. Left of that, the small feature is MERTIS, a radiometer and thermal imaging spectrometer.
The three oval shapes indicate startrackers, used for navigation, and the two red squares on the side are sun sensors. A low-gain antenna is situated above the sun sensors.