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In Brief Suggested How to Put a Spacecraft Into an Poles of Mercury, Where the Temperature Orbit That Would Bring It Back Repeatedly to Is Milder

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In Brief Suggested How to Put a Spacecraft Into an Poles of Mercury, Where the Temperature Orbit That Would Bring It Back Repeatedly to Is Milder r bulletin 100 — december 1999 Mercury Mission Named these and other questions with three ‘BepiColombo’ in Honour separate sets of scientific instruments. According to preliminary studies of Space Pioneer completed in April 1999, a Planetary Meeting in Naples on 20-23 September, Orbiter will examine the planet from an ESA’s Science Programme Committee orbit over the poles, using two cameras recognised the achievements of the late and half a dozen other remote-sensing Giuseppe Colombo of the University of instruments. Seven detectors in a smaller Padua by adopting his name for the Magnetospheric Orbiter will observe planned ESA Mercury project. Almost Mercury’s magnetic field and its everything known until now about the interactions with the solar wind. planet Mercury comes from three passes by NASA’s Mariner 10 in 1974-75 and A Surface Element dropped by inspired by Colombo’s calculations. He BepiColombo will land near one of the In Brief suggested how to put a spacecraft into an poles of Mercury, where the temperature orbit that would bring it back repeatedly to is milder. Here the instruments will include Mercury. The Italian scientist also a camera, a seismometer, a detector for explained, as an unsuspected resonance, chemical elements, and a package for Mercury’s peculiar habit of rotating three assessing the temperature, heat capacity, times in every two revolutions of the Sun. density and hardness of Mercury’s ‘soil’. The Surface Element is expected to ESA’s mission to Mercury is one operate for at least a week and the two of ESA’s science programme orbiters for about 12 months. ‘Cornerstones’. In the course of the comprehensive Horizon 2000 When ESA began contemplating a mission Plus review of the programme to Mercury, the journey time was expected five years ago, it was identified to be nearly four years, with a complex by Europe’s space scientists as series of manoeuvres around Venus and one of the most challenging Mercury designed to bring the spacecraft long-term planetary projects. into an orbit similar to Mercury’s. Now Mercury is the least known of BepiColombo’s journey will be cut to the inner planets. Its orbit close about 2.5 years with the aid of a solar- to the Sun makes it difficult to electric propulsion module, which ejects observe from a distance and heavy xenon ions at high speed to provide hard to reach by spaceflight. As a small but continuous acceleration over a result, questions raised by the many months. Swing-bys of Venus and Giuseppe (Bepi) Colombo (1920-1984) Mariner 10 fly-bys of a quarter of a Mercury are still part of the mission profile, century ago remain unanswered. and a chemical propulsion module will finally put BepiColombo’s main spacecraft “I am very pleased we have given the into orbit around Mercury. name of BepiColombo to our Mercury cornerstone. Bepi was a great scientist, a Giuseppe (Bepi) Colombo (1920-1984) great European and a great friend; we was a mathematician and engineer of could do no better than name one of our astonishing imagination, whose bald head most challenging and imaginative missions and grey moustache were familiar in the after him” said Roger Bonnet, Director of corridors of both ESA and NASA. Apart the ESA Science Programme. from his work on Mercury, Colombo invented tethers for tying satellites Scientists cannot claim to fully understand together. As one of the initiators of ESA’s the origin and history of the Earth itself mission to Halley’s Comet he suggested until they can make sense of Mercury. its name, Giotto, but he died before that Why is the planet surprisingly dense? project was accomplished. At the Where does its magnetic field come from? University of Padua his work continues in What were the effects of massive CISAS, the Centro Interdipartimentale collisions suffered by Mercury, apparent in Studi ed Attività Spaziali ‘G. Colombo’. shattered zones seen by Mariner 10? Is Mercury geologically active? How does its In 1985, to commemorate this great close proximity to the Sun affect its scientist, ESA created a ‘Colombo surface, its tenuous atmosphere and the fellowship’ to be granted to European small magnetic bubble, or scientists working in the fields of science magnetosphere, which surrounds it? explored by G.Colombo. r BepiColombo will seek the answers to in brief XMM Draws Youthful Interest Ariane-4 launches The 118th Ariane launch (V118) took place Recently, ESA has been actively promoting a series of activities addressing the younger successfully on Thursday 12 August at generation, in a concerted effort to stimulate their interest in space and involve as many 19:52 Kourou time. An Ariane 42P vehicle young Europeans as possible in the Agency’s activities. (equipped with two solid strap-on boosters) lifting-off from the Guiana Space In line with these activities, and to celebrate the December launch of XMM, two Centre – the European Spaceport in competitions for European schools in the ESA Member States were announced in Kourou, French Guiana – placed into September: ‘Draw me a Telescope’ and ‘What’s new Mr Galileo?’ geostationary transfer orbit the Indonesian telecommunications satellite TELKOM 1. Draw me a Telescope This competition invited school children aged 8 to 12 to draw a telescope as a class Ariane V120, again using a 42P vehicle, activity. Out of over 350 entries received, one per Member State was selected to be was launched on Saturday 4 September included in the official XMM logo. This logo was displayed for the first time on the fairing at 19:34 Kourou time, delivering the of the Ariane-5 rocket launching the XMM spacecraft. Additionally, ESA invited one child Korean telecommunications satellite, per country, representing the winning class, to French Guiana to see the launch. Koreasat 3, into geostationary transfer orbit. The winning classes come from the following schools: Ariane V121 was launched on Saturday 25 September at 03:29 Kourou time. The AUSTRIA: Bundesgymnasium, Baden bei Wien 44LP vehicle (equipped with 2 liquid and BELGIUM: Gesubsideerde Vrije Basisschool, Brugge 2 solid strap-on boosters) lifted off with DENMARK: Nordstrandsskolen, Dragor the American telecommunications satellite, TELSTAR 7. FINLAND: Mäntysalon Koulu, Klaukkala FRANCE: Ecole du Vieil Orme, Rambouillet The 122nd Ariane launch (V122) took GERMANY: Gerhart Hauptmann Schule, Griesheim place on Tuesday 19 October at 03:22 IRELAND: North Dublin National School Project, Dublin Kourou time, successfully placing into ITALY: Scuola Elementare “5 giornate”, Milano super-synchronous transfer orbit the THE NETHERLANDS: International School of Amsterdam, Amstelveen American telecommunications satellite NORWAY: Kringsjå skole, Oslo ORION 2. SPAIN: Colexio Apóstol Santiago (Jesuitas-Vigo), Vigo SWEDEN: Hubertusgården, Lund Ariane V123 lifted off on Saturday 13 SWITZERLAND: Ecole Primaire de La Roche, La Roche November at 19:54 Kourou time carrying the American telecommunications satellite, UNITED KINGDOM: The School of St. Helen and St. Katherine, Abingdon. GE4, into geostationary transfer orbit. What’s new Mr Galileo? This competition was open to youngsters aged 13 to 15 whose classes had to write, in English, a one-page vision of astronomy and its benefits for humanity. In one month’s time, ESA received and assessed over 100 essays. The winning classes, one per Member State, were invited to Kourou to visit the launch facilities. The winning schools are: AUSTRIA: Bundesrealgymnasium, Graz BELGIUM: Lycée Emile Jacqmain, Bruxelles FINLAND: Helsingin Suomalainen Yhteiskoulu, Helsinki FRANCE: Collège Buffon, Paris GERMANY: Ignaz Kögler Gymnasium, Landsberg A. Lech IRELAND: Malahide Community School, Dublin ITALY: Istituto Michelangelo Buonarroti, Verona THE NETHERLANDS: Niftarlake College, Maarssen NORWAY: Enebakk Ungdomsskole, Enebakk SPAIN: Colegio El Ave Maria, Benimamet (Valencia) SWEDEN: Hökarängsskolan, Farsta SWITZERLAND: Cycle d’Orientation du Gibloux, Farvagny UNITED KINGDOM: Haggerston School for Girls, Shoreditch, London r bulletin 100 — december 1999 50th IAF Congress Jorritsma-Liebink, Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs. On Wednesday, 6 The 50th Congress of the International October, he opened the plenary session Aeronautical Federation (IAF) took place on the ‘Future of European Space’. On on 4-8 October 1999 at the RAI the evening of 7 October, Mr Rodotà Conference Centre in Amsterdam (NL), addressed the 464 invited European bringing together over 2000 space students and congratulated the winners of community professionals under the theme the lottery prizes. ‘Space – an integral part of the information age’. The exhibition was Hans Kappler, ESA’s Director of Industrial opened on Monday, 4 October, by His Matters and Technology Programmes, Royal Highness Wilhelm-Alexander, Prince spoke at the plenary session on ‘Space of Orange. Technology needs for the 21st century’, as did his counterparts from NASA, NASDA, ESA played a major role in the Congress the Canadian Space Agency and Ball providing information on current and future Aerospace. Jörg Feustel-Büechl, Director programmes with presentations and of Manned Spaceflight and Microgravity demonstrations of space technology, programmes, announced the winners of Earth observation, space science, ‘Success’, ESA’s Student Competition for navigation and telemedicine. Particular the best ISS Experiment Proposal and highlights included a 3-D presentation of handed out prizes at a special event the International Space Station, the opened as well to the general public. original capsule of the Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator (ARD) and the X-ray Altogether, ESA’s representatives included An inaugural speech was given by ESA’s mirrors developed for the XMM fourteen session chairmen or co- Director General, Antonio Rodotà spacecraft. chairmen, one symposium coordinator, two rapporteurs and twenty-eight A total of 464 students from ESA Member speakers. States were sponsored by the Agency’s two afternoons, providing Congress Education and Outreach Office to attend participants with the opportunity to see The next IAF Congress and Exhibition the Congress. This was the first time that the Artemis and Envisat flight units, and (51st) will be held on 2-6 October 2000 such a significant number of students visit the Erasmus User Centre.
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