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At 3:45 Swedish time on Saturday, the European and Japanese spacecraft BepiColombo is dispatched from Kourou in French Guiana to begin a seven-year journey to the smallest planet in our solar system, Mercury. With the two satellites in the vehicle there are three instruments that the Institute for Space Physics, IRF, has helped develop.
One of them is an electric field instrument that Jan-Erik Wahlund, an IRF professor at Uppsala, helped build the electronics and probe surfaces.
– It will measure, among other things, the electrical potential that is important in discovering how the solar wind affects Mercury’s space environment and its effect on the planet’s surface, he says.
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Jan-Erik Wahlund
At the IRF in Kiruna, Professor Stas Barabash has been responsible for a so-called ion detector to measure charged particles from the solar wind hitting the surface of Mekurius and an instrument to measure the atoms that are released from the surface. Together, the two instruments will provide new insights into Mercury’s thin atmosphere.
Mercury is the closest planet to the sun. Therefore, a major challenge in building the spacecraft, its two satellites, and the instruments on board has been making them heat-resistant enough to withstand several hundred degrees of high temperatures, a work that also contributed to science researchers. of materials at Uppsala University.
The launch of BepiColombo will be shown to the public on Saturday from 10 a.m. at 12 p.m. in room IX of the Uppsala University Hall.
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