The European Space Agency has approved provisonally two new missions in the Cornerstone series of major space programmes. The BepiColombo Mercury orbiter and lander and the Global Astrometric Interferometer for Astrophysics (GAIA) spacecraft will be the fifth and sixth missions in the series.
BepiColombo, to be launched in 2009, will feature three "missions", comprising a main orbiter, a magnetosphere orbiter and two small penetrator probes which will impact on Mercury's surface. It will take a comprehensive look at the planet in three fly-bys. Mercury has only been explored by one spacecraft, Mariner 10, in 1973-74.
GAIA will be launched in 2012 to provide information for a three-dimensional map of the galaxy.
Three smaller Flexi-Missions have been recommended by ESA's Space Advisory Commission. Two, in co-operation with NASA, involve participation in the Next Generation Space Telescope and a Laser Interferometer Space Antenna to detect gravitational waves. The other is the Solar Orbiter, which will provide the first close-up images of the sun from 31 million km (19 million miles).
Meanwhile, ESA's Ulysses solar polar orbiter began its second pass by the sun's outer polar region on 8 September. The first was in 1994. The new pass comes during the sun's period of maximum activity during its 11-year solar cycle.
Source: Flight International
