Return to Mercury: BepiColombo
Students learn why Mercury is one of the hardest planets to reach and orbit, meet the earlier explorers Mariner 10 and MESSENGER, and follow the ESA and JAXA BepiColombo mission, launched in October 2018, through nine planned flybys toward its planned arrival in orbit.
Grades 5-8About 15 minutes of narrated flight, plus discussion stops8 stops
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What students will see and do
Students fly from Earth to the live position of BepiColombo, to the Sun, up to an overview of the solar system, to Venus, to Mercury twice, and back to the spacecraft. Aetherion pauses three times: at the Sun (why falling toward the Sun makes stopping at Mercury hard), at Mercury (how ice survives in shadowed polar craters), and at BepiColombo (the patience and teamwork a long mission needs).
Learning objectives
- Explain why a spacecraft speeds up as it falls toward the Sun and must lose speed to orbit Mercury.
- Describe how gravity assist flybys of Earth, Venus, and Mercury act as brakes.
- Compare the discoveries of Mariner 10, MESSENGER, and the goals of BepiColombo's two orbiters.
- Identify why water ice can last in permanently shadowed craters near Mercury's poles.
NGSS connections
| MS-ESS1-2 | The Sun's gravity speeds up an inbound spacecraft, and planetary gravity assists reshape its orbit. |
|---|---|
| MS-ESS1-3 | Students compare Mercury's size, temperature extremes, and day length with Earth's. |
| MS-ETS1-1 | Engineers designed sunshades, insulation, and a long flyby route to meet the constraints of heat and speed. |
Stops on this journey
- Two Explorers in One Package
- The Traveling Stack
- Why Mercury Is Hard to Reach (discussion stop)
- Nine Flybys to Slow Down
- Passing the Cloudy Neighbor
- The First Visitors
- Ice Near the Sun (discussion stop)
- Arrival Ahead (discussion stop)
Vocabulary
- orbit
- gravity assist
- flyby
- magnetic field
- orbiter
- electric thruster
- permanently shadowed crater