In the middle of the BepiColombo spaceship, there was Venus. And since she was around, why not take a “selfie” with the planet? The record, in black and white, was captured this week by the mission on its way to Mercury – a partnership of the European (ESA) and Japanese (Jaxa) space agencies.
According to ESA, the image was taken on the 10th by Monitoring Camera 3, when BepiColombo was about 1,500 kilometers from Venus. The closest approach to the planet was 552 kilometers away.
This mission is expected to make the first flyover over Mercury on October 1 or 2, and enter Mercury orbit in 2025. The researchers’ intention is to learn more about the rarefied atmosphere of the star closest to the Sun.
Venus was also on the route of another mission this week. The Solar Orbiter made a flyover, on the last 9th, and reached 7,995 kilometers from the planet. This is a partnership of the European Space Agency and the North American Space Agency (NASA). In this case, the objective is to study the surface of the Sun, in addition to the solar winds and the influence of the star on our system.
According to ESA, both missions, which were 33 hours apart, felt the effects of gravity and temperature as they approached Venus. Among them, the temperature variation in solar panels, and slight change inside spacecraft. Other impacts are being analyzed by the responsible teams. The space agency also points out that it was possible to capture information about the planet’s atmosphere in interaction with solar winds.
Data collected during flights over Venus was converted into frequency to be perceptible to the human ear. So the “sounds” coming from Venus can be heard here:
“Gravity Sling”
The Solar Orbiter mission was launched in 2020 and BebiColombo in 2018, with careful planning on the trajectory and amount of fuel to reach destinations.
In the script for the two missions is Venus, strategically located on the way to Mercury and the Sun. Venus, which is the closest planet to Earth (about 50 million kilometers), will serve as a “gravitational slingshot” for spacecraft to reach the Earth. last stops.
“The BepiColombo and Solar Orbiter spacecraft are heading towards the interior of the solar system, and using the gravity-assisted maneuver of the planet Venus is an excellent method of ‘catapulting’ the probes, thus adjusting the fuel to the desired orbital trajectory”, explains the professor at the Physics Institute of the University of Brasília (UnB), José Leonardo Ferreira.
According to the specialist in space sciences, gravity-assisted orbital maneuver is a strategy adopted in several missions, as in the case of the Voyagers probes, which are currently heading out of the solar system.
“In addition to good fuel economy, the maneuver allows the spacecraft to approach the planet, thus enabling a more detailed observation and carrying out experiments with on-board cameras and sensors”, he says.
The professor also recalls that BebiColombo has an advanced electric propulsion system, also known as a plasma thruster, to reach the planet Mercury.
This Friday (13), ESA released a series of images captured by BebiColombo cameras. Look here:
–
