The Japan-European Mercury Exploration Program "Bepi Colombo" will be launched in October

BepiColombo will be launched on October 2018 on an Ariane 5 rocket from ESA’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The spacecraft will arrive at Planet Mercury in December 2025 for a 1 year nominal mission with a possible 1-year extension. 

BepiColombo will use the gravity of the Earth, Venus and Mercury in combination with solar-electric propulsion (SEP) to journey to Mercury. When approaching Mercury, the spacecraft will use the planet’s gravity plus conventional rocket engines to insert itself into a polar orbit.

The main contractor for BepiColombo project is Airbus Defence and Space. It is building the European Mercury Planetary Orbiter and the Mercury Transfer Module.

The aim of the BepiColombo mission is:

1. To investigate Planet Mercury’s magnetic field, magnetosphere and both its surface and interior.

2. To make a complete map of Mercury at different wavelengths. This will allow to map the planet’s mineralogy and elemental composition and determine whether the interior of the planet is molten or not.

3. To examine Mercury as a planet: composition, craters, geology and interior structure.

4. To examine Mercury’s thin atmosphere.

5. To use the spacecraft’s proximity to the Sun to test the predictions of General Relativity theory with improved accuracy.

6. To understand the origin and evolution of a planet close to its parent star (our Sun).

The total estimated cost of the mission is 650 million euros (in June 2013).