Getting to grips with Mercury's dynamic space environment as the Bepicolombo mission flies to the innermost planet

2018年10月，比佩科伦坡任务从圭亚那航天中心发射，开始了为期七年的水星之旅。这项旗舰任务是欧洲航天局(ESA)和日本宇宙航空研究开发机构的合作。到达后，这项任务将彻底改变我们对最接近太阳的行星的理解。这个项目建立在我们作为磁场实验联合调查员参与比皮科伦坡的基础上。这项工作将主要基于对NASA的信使号航天器所做的磁场测量的分析，该航天器在2011年至2015年期间绕水星运行。总体目标是提高我们对水星高度动态的“磁层”的理解，为比普科伦坡的轨道插入做准备。最初的目标将是描述环绕着这颗行星的太空中看不见的电流片的特征，以保护它免受高速太阳风的影响。这些电流的变化就像一个金属探测器，可以揭示水星次表面的性质。

In October 2018 the BepiColombo mission launched from the Guiana Space Centre, beginning its seven-year journey to Mercury. This flagship mission is a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Upon arrival the mission will revolutionise our understanding of the closest planet to the Sun. This project builds on our involvement in BepiColombo as magnetic field experiment Co-Investigators.The work will be primarily based on analysis of magnetic field measurements made by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft, which orbited Mercury between 2011 and 2015. The overall aim will be to improve our understanding of Mercury's highly dynamic "magnetosphere" in preparation for BepiColombo's orbit insertion. The initial aim will be to characterise the invisible sheet of electrical current in space that surrounds the planet, shielding it from the high-speed solar wind. Changes in these currents act like a metal detector that can reveal the properties of Mercury's subsurface.