BepiColombo Laser Altimeter - BELA

Mission Overview

The BepiColombo mission comprises two spacecraft, the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) to be built by ESA and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO) to be built by JAXA. The two spacecraft will fly to Mercury together in a coupled system until reaching Mercury orbit. The MMO will then be released into a 400 km x 19200 km orbit to allow detailed study of the magnetospheric interaction between the planet and the solar wind. The MPO will then descend to a 400 km x 1500 km orbit which is optimum for remote-sensing of the planet's surface.

The BepiColombo Laser Altimeter is one of the main experiments onboard the MPO.

The image shows an artists impression of the BepiColombo space crafts MPO and MMP with Mercury and the Sun in the background. — Artist's impression of BepiColombo Copyright: ESA

The image shows the elements of the BepiColombo Mercury Composite Spacecraft: the mercury transit module, the mercury planetary oribter, the sun shield, and the mercury magnetospheric orbiter. — Elements of the BepiColombo Mercury Composite Spacecraft Copyright: ESA