Sunday, 21 October 2018

BepiColumbo's journey to Mercury relies on ion power

The T6 ion thruster will help send BepiColombo to Mercury

The ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission is on its way to Mercury, but instead of coasting to the smallest planet in the Solar System, it will be helped along by four state-of-the-art ion thrusters developed by an industrial consortium led by British company QinetiQ. The new solar-electric propulsion system in conjunction with a series of nine planetary flybys will allow the unmanned spacecraft to reach its destination against the pull of the Sun's gravity.

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from New Atlas (Gizmag) https://ift.tt/2PeB0qr

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