The BepiColombo mission consists primarily of two orbiters: the European MPO and the Japanese MMO. Their objectives are different but they share a common goal: to help us learn more about the planet closest to the Sun, Mercury. This mission has diverse objectives across various themes: Planet formation and evolution: Determine how Mercury formed to…
Mercury. The planet closest to the Sun. It remains highly mysterious to us. Only two space probes have explored it: Mariner 10, which flew by three times in 1974-75, and then MESSENGER, which orbited the planet’s poles from 2011 to 2015. Both missions were highly innovative and represented pioneers in space exploration. Unfortunately, neither fully…
If there’s one thing we’re starting to get used to, it’s the spectacular landings by SpaceX. These were typically done at three distinct locations: on land at Cape Canaveral, in the Atlantic on the OCISLY barge, or in the Pacific on the JRTI barge. However, with its launch on October 8, 2018, SpaceX inaugurated a…