"Dynamic response on @ESA_MTM hold down release" - the solar arrays springing out as the straps that hold them down are cut & arrays pulled out by the motors, causing the spacecraft to wobble a bit as expected. #BepiColombo is now recharging its batteries pic.twitter.com/DFAAfgOu1G
What do the engineers at #ESOC look at? Graphs like this are plotted from the spacecraft telemetry. In this case, we see the currents used in the thermal knives to release the solar arrays. They will spring out, then a set of motors & wires will pull them tight #BepiColombopic.twitter.com/Lzb2OFQEVy
#BepiColombo🛰 has been identified as one of the most challenging long-term planetary projects ever flown. In 9 billion km, it will complete 9 planetary flybys: circling #Earth once🌍#Venus twice🌕🌕 and #Mercury itself 6 times 🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑 pic.twitter.com/J8yd6StcBh
« Unbelievable moment » said U. Reininghaus from @esa and H. Hayakawa from @JAXA_en both project managers for @ESA_Bepi when door was opening unveiling Ariane5 VA245 pic.twitter.com/Ri715kxIwG
— philippe willekens (@philippewilleke) 2018年10月18日
Mission teams @ESA's operations centre in Darmstadt are just now finishing the #BepiColombo🛰pre-launch dress rehearsal. In a final run-through simulation before liftoff, controllers were connected to the spacecraft via an umbilical cable👩💻〰🛰. Read more: https://t.co/d3ZnelW1Dvpic.twitter.com/wZJmfHPWsM
The @BepiColombo mission is assembled and ready for launch on 20 October from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana - the start of a 7 year journey to explore #Mercury, the smallest and least explored planet in the inner Solar System. 🎥 https://t.co/PwjnjGDoZopic.twitter.com/kn7b8Mqa6M
Now the three of us are stacked in launch configuration, the gap between me and @ESA_MTM has been sewn over with a special multi-layered insulation “skirt”. Less than 16 days to launch! #Bepicolombopic.twitter.com/vNgBEeWwy1
Why is it such a long journey for #BepiColombo to #Mercury? Well, we need more energy than getting to Pluto! Cannot carry so much fuel, so gravity assists combined with ion propulsion will get us there. #EPSC2018pic.twitter.com/5SpGETrzWO
Go Murakami JAXA #BepiColombo project scientist, delves deeper into science with @JAXA_MMO. On the journey it sits inside the sunshield; at Mercury it will spin 15 times a minute to keep cool by distributing the Sun’s heat. #EPSC2018pic.twitter.com/ZBwsJ8wkbi
#BepiColombo’s science at #Mercury will also help inform us about solar system formation in general - also relevant for the thousands of #exoplanet systems being discovered and understanding how planets close to their host stars form and evolve! #EPSC2018pic.twitter.com/gU149ledr1
Next: build complete spacecraft stack, integrate with launcher, final launch preps… then liftoff! Now targeting 19 Oct 22:45 (Kourou) / 20 Oct 03:45 CEST #EPSC2018pic.twitter.com/syiUAydycx
First up Bastien Brugger & Thomas Ronnet (University of Aix Marseille) to introduce #Mercury and what we know so far thanks to @MESSENGER2011 with respect to Mercury's formation and chemistry. There's still a long way to go.... enter #BepiColombo! #EPCS2018
Word of the day by Heyner - "with @BepiColombo everything will be better" (referring to magnetometer measurements) .. symmetrical coverage of both hemispheres will be fantastic! #EPSC2018
Names and messages from public in a memory card is installed in my heart! I take the hot messages to the hot planet, Mercury! pic.twitter.com/DS3ZYJQ7mK
LOOK! 👀 My solar array is attached! 😃 Can you see it?!? It's got some help hanging from the 'zero-g' rig, and it's going to get folded up again soon, and then I can practise deploying it, and then it will be stowed for launch...like yours @ESA_MTM! 😅 #Excited! pic.twitter.com/c0myVIBrUf
Some careful finishing touches to the sewing of the multi-layered insulation around my high-gain antenna and mechanisms, currently in stowed configuration... pic.twitter.com/96m6c1rVVr
Watching as my solar array is being deployed and inspected in a special rig needed to support the array from above, to help simulate the weightlessness of space. I’m looking forward to having a go at it myself soon 😊 Latest photos: https://t.co/9rWR5lDaPnpic.twitter.com/7gboXojc2j
All your followers have a chance to look at your target in the next days... Mercury as seen from Melbourne in today and yesterday. Mercury can be spotted on the lower left in line with Venus and Regulus. pic.twitter.com/7683J3hEFj
Meanwhile, engineers are also working on thermal insulation of @JAXA_MMO, seen here (left pic) before the integration of the panels supporting the solar cells (panels: right pic) 🙂🛰️ pic.twitter.com/t09KPHYAMC
.@BepiColombo teams practice the unique mission to #Mercury at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Germany. BepiColombo will use the gravity of Earth, Venus and Mercury in 9 complex flybys, arriving at the least explored planet in the Solar System in late 2025 🌕🛰 pic.twitter.com/GnrOdJNCPv
While insulation is being finalised on @ESA_Bepi & @ESA_MTM, solar array deployment tests have begun for MTM before being attached to the craft; MTM is also being readied for Xenon fuelling, which will be used for the solar electric propulsion to #Mercuryhttps://t.co/t5rm9MTPkl
Update from the #Spaceport, where sewing of the multi-layer insulation on @ESA_Bepi and @ESA_MTM goes on. Meanwhile, the three tanks of the MTM were loaded with a total of 581 kg of xenon, which will be used for the solar electric propulsion to #Mercuryhttps://t.co/Hw7iYH91OO
Watch the 99th and 100th #Ariane5 in motion as they performed a special dual-transfer at the Spaceport. This was on July 5, in preparation for Flights #VA244 (Galileo mission) & #VA243, scheduled for July 25 and early September liftoffs, respectively. #MissiontoSuccesspic.twitter.com/DABfsh4IzD