ESAs mission to Mercury started its long test campaign when the European Mercury Planetary Orbiter felt the heat of the sun for the first time in ESAs large Space Simulator at ESTEC in The Netherlands. The results were excellent with the radiator, venetian blinds and multilayer insulation performing exactly as exspected. A few heat leaks were identified that will require design modifications but this is exactly why ESA do such important tests. So as with most ESA space exploration missions Bepi Colombo will drive technologies that will no doubt find other applications while fulfilling its intended role in further investigating the mysteries of our solar system.

More backgroud information can be found on: http://www.esa.int/esaSC/120391_index_0_m.html

The MPEG-2 files are on the ESA ftp server in the folder entitled : ftp://esa.contentcoders.com/mpeg2/BepiColumbo-27102011/