BepiColombo: operating in extreme environments

Most of the ESA's previous interplanetary missions have been to relatively cold parts of the Solar System. BepiColombo is the Agency's first to Mercury, where the solar intensity is about ten times that at Earth. The spacecraft will experience temperatures in excess of 450 °C – hotter than a pizza oven. To cope with this, external coatings and mechanisms had to be developed and individually tested to prove their capability.

Note: This infographic was updated for style in August 2026