Due to the heat, they will land on the dark side
Japan is planning a joint mission with the European Space Agency - the first landing of a research vehicle on the planet Mercury. This is what an official in the Japanese space program said yesterday. The mission includes three research spacecraft - two that will orbit the star and one that will land on it, with the aim of mapping the surface and studying the origins of the planet closest to the sun.
Russian Soyuz rockets will launch the research spacecraft into space, starting in 2010. The spacecraft will reach the planet Hema about four years later. "This will be the first landing," said Masahiko Sawabe of the Japanese Ministry of Education and Science. "If the mission is successful, we will gather a wealth of new scientific knowledge."
To escape the immense heat of the rocky surface of Hama, where temperatures reach 467 degrees Celsius during the day, the research vehicle will land on the dark side of the planet, during the night of the star. In such conditions the temperature drops to minus 183 degrees. The rotation of Hema on its axis is very slow - one day there lasts as long as 176 days of the Earth.
Only one research spacecraft has so far reached the planet Mercury - the American "Mariner 10", which made three flybys near the planet in the years. 1975-1974 NASA plans to launch another research spacecraft into orbit around the planet; this spacecraft, known as "Messenger", will be launched at some point in 2004 and will reach the planet Hema in 2007
Japan embarked on its first journey into the solar system with the launch in 1998 of the research spacecraft Nozumi (Hope) to Mars. The spacecraft suffered from a host of technical problems and made its last flyby near Earth just last week. You are expected to reach Mars by the end of the year.
According to Swaba, Japan will invest 13.5 billion yen (115 million dollars) in the journey to Mars and Europe - 513 million dollars. Japan will build one of the research spacecraft that will be carried as satellites around the planet; Europe will build the lander and the second satellite.
