A First Flyby (of many)

[krpalmer]

It took looking in my newspaper (and I was late doing that today) to see a first report the joint European and Japanese Mercury probe BepiColombo had made a first flyby past Mercury. The article pointed out how it’ll take five more flybys before the probe can enter orbit, which won’t be until 2025. “Patience is a virtue” did come to mind, but I did start wondering how long each of the three flybys Mariner 10 managed in the 1970s had to take pictures. BepiColombo, it seems, can’t use its main cameras until entering orbit, when it’ll separate into Japanese and European components, but simple monitoring cameras did send back some interest-piquing snapshots.