A complex mission to Mercury that began its epic space trip six years ago ran into critical thrust problems that controllers say could jeopardize plans to explore the nearest planet to sun.
BeppiColombo, joint European and Japanese mission, is on track to reach Mercury on Sept. 5 for the first of three crucial flybys designed to put the robotic spacecraft on course around the planet next year. In October 2025, its two science probes—one operated by the European Space Agency and the other by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency — will detach from a module to explore the planet’s surface and magnetic field.
But whether these scientific operations can still happen as planned is uncertain. During a maneuver on April 26, the solar-powered electric propulsion module did not provide enough power to the spacecraft’s engines, according to the ESA. About 11 days later, engineers restored the spacecraft’s thrust to nearly its previous level, but still 10 percent lower.
“A team of experts is working tirelessly on understanding the root cause of the problem and the further impact on the rest of the trajectory,” ESA spokesperson Camille Bello told Mashable.
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Mercury is perhaps the least studied of the rocky worlds in the Solar System.
Credit: NASA / JHU Applied Physics Lab / Carnegie Inst. Washington
To accommodate the spacecraft’s lower thrust level, the team extended the duration of the propulsion arc so that the spacecraft could return to orbit with scheduled flights between September and January 2025. As for what caused the thrust problem, engineers are still trying to figure that out by sifting through every last bit of data available.
“We know we’re dealing with a problem with the availability of electrical power from the mercury transfer module,” Bello said. “The electric thrusters themselves are fine.”
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mercury is perhaps the least studied of the rocky worlds in the Solar System. Hotter and harder to reach than even Saturn, it does not enjoy the level of exploration that the other planets around the sun have received. Only two previous spaceships, both NASA missions, have flown to the planet Swift, named for its rapid orbit around the sun.
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BepiColombolaunched in October 2018 on an Ariane 5 rocket from a French spaceport in South America, aims to explore the ice-filled polar craters, the planet’s magnetic field and enigmatic “cavities” on the surface. Mercury’s outer shell is covered with ancient lava flowscarved out of space rocks over the past 4 billion years or so.
By expanding knowledge of Mercury’s composition, atmosphere and magnetism, scientists can better understand how rocky Earth-like planets formed.
But this is not the first rough patch for BepiColombo. Last year, mission controllers performed a significant course correction to compensate for earlier thruster failures. Without it, BepiColombo could have drifted about 15,000 miles off course and on the wrong side of the planet, according to ESA.
The mission’s multi-year back-to-back flybys are necessary because of how difficult it is to reach Mercury’s orbit.
Credit: ESA
On the mission many years of consecutive flights are necessary because of how difficult it is to get to Mercury. To enter orbit around the planet, the spacecraft must fly slowly enough to be pulled in by Mercury’s gravity. Too fast and it will skip right over. The problem is that as the spacecraft approaches the sun, it picks up speed like a downhill bicycle.
Slowing down in the vacuum of space is no easy feat. The careful choreography of swinging around the planets is way for the spacecraft to burn energy without carrying excessive amounts of fuel that you otherwise would make the spacecraft too heavy to launch in the first place.
If mission control can sufficiently counter the spacecraft’s power problem, science operations could begin in the spring of 2026.
