The ion thrusters on ESA's BepiColombo spacecraft have been successfully tested in space as the probe embarks on the first leg of its epic seven-year voyage to the planet Mercury.
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The ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission is on its way to Mercury, but instead of coasting to the smallest planet in the Solar System, it will be helped along by four state-of-the-art ion thrusters developed by an industrial consortium led by British company QinetiQ.
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ESA's first mission to the planet Mercury lifted off today from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. At 10:45 pm GFT (October 20, 01:45 GMT), the BepiColombo spacecraft rose on a tail of fire into the night atop an Ariane 5 booster on the start of a voyage that will take seven years.
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The tiny robots currently skipping across the surface of asteroid Ryugu have gained some company today, with mothership Hayabusa 2 successfully deploying their bigger sibling, the Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT).
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For over a century people have floated the idea of a space elevator – which is exactly what it sounds like – but the logistics of that just aren’t possible yet. Now Japan has launched a pair of satellites to test out some technologies that might help make a space elevator a reality in future.
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Japan has scored a space race double first by becoming the first nation to land not one, but two rovers on an asteroid. JAXA has confirmed that both of the robotic MINERVA-II1 spacecraft successfully deployed from the unmanned Haybusa2 probe and have touched down on the asteroid Ryugu.
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Before heading in for a closer look itself, JAXA's Hayabusa 2 probe will drop a pair of small rovers onto the asteroid Ryugu this week, which will bounce across the surface and scope out the scene.
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An official launch date has been set for the long-planned BepiColombo mission to Mercury. The joint ESA/JAXA deep space probe will lift off atop an Ariane 5 rocket from the ESA Spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana on October 18, 2018.
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After travelling for over three and a half years through the hostile environment of outer space, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA’s) Hayabusa 2 spacecraft has successfully made orbit around the asteroid Ryugu.
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The Japanese prospecting spacecraft Hayabusa 2 has captured the most detailed images to date of its target – the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu. Once at the asteroid, Hayabusa 2 will deploy a lander and three small rovers, before obtaining surface samples for return, and creating an artificial crater.
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