Bepi Colombo Flybys at Mercury

Before entering into orbit around Mercury, BepiColombo will perform six flybys at Mercury that will allow progressive modifications to the interplanetary trajectory. The flybys will take place in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024(twice) and at the beginning of 2025. The following table provide an overview of the main characteristics.

The information found on this page was retrieved using the JPL SPICE toolset, the SPICE kernels from SGS version v271 dated 20 August 2020, and the 3DView Tool CDPP2.11.1 from CNES/IRAP/GFI.

Views

The different swingby 'views' provided in the table below, visualize different swing-by information. All movies are in the Mercury-centric solar-orbital frame, thus a view from the Sun to Mercury (x-axes) within the Mercury orbit in the horizontal (y-axis).

Solar view

The 'Solar View' will thus provide information of BepiColombo's flyby orientation in respect to Mercury, and answers thus the question, if Mercury flies within the Mercury-Sun line or outside. The viewer can also get an idea about the inclination of the BepiColombo trajectory.

Spacecraft view

The 'Spacecraft View' provide the view of a hypothetical camera (FOV: 45 degrees) on the s/c always pointed towards the center of Mercury. The viewer gets the illumination information during the flyby and - as the coordinate system is plotted over the planet surface - also information on the overflown surface.

North Polar view

The 'North Polar View' provides a viewpoint onto Mercury's North Pole. The viewer can obtain information on the illumination as well as if the closest flyby is over the northern or southern Hermean hemisphere. 

Bowshock-Magnetopause view

The 'Bowshock-Magnetopause View' provides a view into the Sun-Mercury Plane visualizing the bowshock and magnetopause following Slavin et al., 2009. The times of boundary crossings is marked by dots.

Further flyby characteristics