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Opportunity: the rover of all records
As the InSight lander finished deploying the HP3 thermal probe on the surface of the red planet, NASA announced the official end of the Mars Exploration Rover mission. Launched more than 15 years ago, this mission included two rovers: Spirit and Opportunity. It was the latter which, after many years of faithful service and extensive…
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BepiColombo, the instruments and the technical aspects of an extraordinary mission
The BepiColombo mission consists primarily of two orbiters: the European MPO and the Japanese MMO. Their objectives are different but they share a common goal: to help us learn more about the planet closest to the Sun, Mercury. This mission has diverse objectives across various themes: Planet formation and evolution: Determine how Mercury formed to…
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BepiColombo: The Story of a Highly Ambitious Mission
Mercury. The planet closest to the Sun. It remains highly mysterious to us. Only two space probes have explored it: Mariner 10, which flew by three times in 1974-75, and then MESSENGER, which orbited the planet’s poles from 2011 to 2015. Both missions were highly innovative and represented pioneers in space exploration. Unfortunately, neither fully…