Re:BepiColombo’s First Views of Mercury
by adolph on Monday October 04, 2021 @12:59AM
(#28743262)
The closest approach took place at 23:34 UTC on 1 October at an altitude of 199 km from the planet’s surface.
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Albeit the pictures are from at least 1000 km away, since closest approach was from the dark side.
I’m always amazed at the precision of space probe operations.
It’s a bummer we don’t have better space propulsion systems, five years meandering about the inner solar system to get the right speed and angle to enter an orbit around mercury.
Re:BepiColombo’s First Views of Mercury
by Azrael3000 on Monday October 04, 2021 @02:44AM
(#28743792)
Scott Manley did a great video on the probe and its approach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Sj9cjwFhQY
Re:BepiColombo’s First Views of Mercury
by KineticLensman on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:30AM
(#28745045)
It’s a bummer we don’t have better space propulsion systems
Hey! I used to work for the company that made BepiColombo's engines [0]
[0] https://www.qinetiq.com/en/news/pioneering-qinetiq-solar-ele...
Ah now i get the username! :D
Very cool!
Re:BepiColombo’s First Views of Mercury
by KineticLensman on Monday October 04, 2021 @08:43AM
(#28745925)
Thank you. It actually started for photography reasons when I knew a (friendly) rival photographer who worked for one of our customer organizations.
[Edit] That and my liking for the Space Opera novels written by E.E. 'Doc' Smith.