Mission

ESA’s BepiColombo mission to planet Mercury is a cornerstone in the scientific program of the Agency. However, it is a challenging one: in fact, Solar heat fluxes may be 10 times higher than those experienced on Earth! Further, the extreme temperature gradients observed around Mercury make the orbiting spacecraft receive a highly varying load of planetary fluxes.

BepiColombo is equipped with, along with other apparatus, a laser altimeter (BepiColombo Laser Altimeter or BELA), which will determine accurately Mercury’s topography the shape of its surface. The instrument will also be used for additional gravimetrical and topographic study that will aid research into the structure of the lithosphere, and may even enable us to hypothesise on the thickness of Mercury’s crust.

Case Study
Active Space Technologies esponsible for several BELA subsystems including portions of the transmitter and the main electronics, an instrument developed by DLR, which will be launched onboard the Mercury Planet Orbiter (MPO).