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Bepi Colombo mission to Mercury / / 18-04-2012
18 April 2012
European Space Agency (ESA)
The next transmission of the ESA TV Service will be:
ESA TV Exchanges
18-Apr-12 15:00 - 15:18 GMT
REPLAY: 19-Apr-12 06:30 - 06:48 GMT
Bepi Colombo mission to Mercury
Background information on the transmission:
Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, remains somewhat of a mystery to us..
In the past, because of its proximity to the sun, it has been difficult for Earth based telescopes to observe Mercury against the ferocious solar light.
To increase our understanding of this mysterious planet Europe will launch in 2015 BepiColombo, the first dedicated mission to Mercury that should reach its destination in 2022.
Its observations of Mercury should also offer new insights into the workings of extra-solar planets in other solar systems.
These planets, which like Mercury are formed in very close proximity to their parent star the sun, are a hot topic in planetary science and astronomy at the moment.
This A and B Roll recalls the questions raised around Mercury and explains what BepiColombo will do with interviews of Alvaro Gimenez Canete, ESA Director of Science and Robotic Exploration and Johannes Benkhoff, ESA BepiColombo Project Scientist.
For more info on this subject please check the script that is online as a DOC file under :
http://television.esa.int/photos/EbS84559.doc
A WMV preview clip is online under :
http://esatv-movies.e-vision.nl/videos/mplo/ESA_MYSTERIES_OF_MERCURY_WEB_AROLL_04-16-12_wmplow.wmv
More background information can be found on http://www.esa.int/esaSC/index.html.
The MPEG-2 files are on the ESA ftp server in the folder entitled :
ftp://esa.contentcoders.com/mpeg2/Mysteries-of-Mercury-06042012/
Transmission details:
Eutelsat 9A at 9E, transponder 59, downlink frequency 11900.1 horizontally polarised, symbol rate 27,500 FEC 2/3.
For the latest transmission schedule, go to:
http://television.esa.int