{"id":2648,"date":"2017-11-01T09:00:12","date_gmt":"2017-11-01T13:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orbitalhub.com\/?p=2648"},"modified":"2017-10-30T00:01:10","modified_gmt":"2017-10-30T04:01:10","slug":"mercury-transfer-module-electric-propulsion-thruster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orbitalhub.com\/?p=2648","title":{"rendered":"Mercury Transfer Module Electric Propulsion Thruster"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"float: left; padding-right: 30px;\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 5px;\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 5px;\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"580\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cPmG7Hek1U8\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 5px;\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>ESA dixit:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;[This is a] Video showing a test of the mechanisms steering the four solar electric propulsion thrusters on BepiColombo\u2019s Mercury Transfer Module (speeded up by 20 times). The module will use a combination of electric propulsion and multiple gravity assists at Earth, Venus and Mercury to carry BepiColombo\u2019s two scientificorbiters \u2013 ESA\u2019s Mercury Planetary Orbiter and Japan\u2019s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter \u2013 to the innermost planet in our Solar System.<\/p>\n<p>The test is designed to demonstrate that the mechanisms can reach their full steering range. The thruster mechanisms control the steering of the spacecraft during the long thrust arcs of the 7.2 year cruise to Mercury and as such are used for navigation, attitude control, and reaction wheel off-loading. Together with the onboard software, the mechanisms will update the direction of the thrust vector every five minutes relative to the spacecraft\u2019s evolving centre of gravity. The thrusters will be fired for several months at a time between the gravity assist flybys. <\/p>\n<p>This particular test was conducted in April 2017, before the spacecraft was put into the composite stack configuration. The same test will be repeated again later in the year to verify performance after the stack level vibration test campaign.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Video credit: ESA<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 5px;\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[This is a] Video showing a test of the mechanisms steering the four solar electric propulsion thrusters on BepiColombo\u2019s Mercury Transfer Module (speeded up by 20 times). The module will use a combination of electric propulsion and multiple gravity assists at Earth, Venus and Mercury to carry BepiColombo\u2019s two scientificorbiters \u2013 ESA\u2019s Mercury Planetary Orbiter and Japan\u2019s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter \u2013 to the innermost planet in our Solar System.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,1,12,463],"tags":[610,31],"class_list":["post-2648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-robotic-exploration","category-space-exploration","category-spacecraft-design","category-videos","tag-bepicolombo","tag-esa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orbitalhub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orbitalhub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orbitalhub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orbitalhub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orbitalhub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2648"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/orbitalhub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2649,"href":"https:\/\/orbitalhub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2648\/revisions\/2649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orbitalhub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orbitalhub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orbitalhub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}