British know-how fuels mission to uncover secrets of planet Mercury
BRITISH know-how will power a new mission blasting off this week to the planet Mercury.
BepiColombo: Animation demonstrates journey to Mercury
The spacecraft will have a lightweight "ion drive", dispensing with the usual chemical system which would have needed 17 tons of propellant.
Instead the engines, made in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, will have just half a ton.
The European Space Agency's BepiColombo is due to blast off with conventional rockets from French Guiana on Saturday.
It will send two orbiters around the planet to explore a world where temperatures can reach 900F (450C).
It is the planet nearest to the Sun.
One of the probes was made at Airbus Space and Defence, in Stevenage.
BepiColombo: Animation of probe’s 7.2 year journey to Mercury
Only two spacecraft have previously visited Mercury. Nasa's Mariner 10 flew past the planet three times in 1974 and 1975; and a US Messenger probe orbited from 2011 to 2015, taking photos of the surface.
Dr Jerry Bolter, project manager at Airbus, said: "The only other spacecraft to go in orbit was Messenger.
That was a very, very light spacecraft and nowhere near as capable as Bepi."