{"id":315,"date":"2020-10-19T20:18:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-19T20:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/?p=315"},"modified":"2025-02-26T13:37:30","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T13:37:30","slug":"introducing-leicesters-bepicolombo-mixs-instrument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/2020\/10\/19\/introducing-leicesters-bepicolombo-mixs-instrument\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing Leicester&#8217;s BepiColombo MIXS Instrument"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><em>This week (October 15th 2020) the BepiColombo spacecraft made its close approach to Venus, using the flybys (and electric propulsion) to brake against the Sun&#8217;s enormous gravity to reach Mercury in 2025.  Although MIXS was sleeping through the event, we celebrated Leicester&#8217;s contribution to the mission.<\/em><\/strong><br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BepiColombo is carrying a piece of cutting-edge technology developed and built by <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/uniofleicester\">University of Leicester<\/a> scientists \u2013 and will represent a first for planetary science.  <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BepiColombo\">@BepiColombo<\/a> is an international mission to the planet Mercury. <br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer (MIXS) instrument is due to arrive at Mercury in 2025 aboard the European Space Agency\u2019s Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO). The MPO spacecraft, together with the Japanese Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO), constitute the BepiColombo mission. This collaboration will be ESA\u2019s first mission to Mercury, the least explored and most extreme of the terrestrial planets. The mission aims to improve our understanding of the planet\u2019s composition, geophysics, atmosphere, magnetosphere and history.<br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"BepiColombo MIXS Instrument - Mission to Mercury\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-t0H3nz_nkI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>The MIXS instrument is designed to determine the surface composition of the planet by means of fluorescent X-ray spectroscopy. It is a two component instrument. MIXS-T (the larger component) is an X-ray imaging telescope with a narrow field for detailed images of the surface. MIXS-C collects X-rays from a wider field of view, to get an overview of the planet.<br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Flight-spare MIXS instrument is <a href=\"https:\/\/collections.spacecentre.co.uk\/object-l2016-12\/\">currently on loan to the National Space Centre<\/a> courtesy of the University of Leicester, Space Research Centre, Scjool of Physics and Astronomy.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Meet Professor Emma Bunce, Principal Investigator for the MIXS instrument.<br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"BepiColombo MIXS Instrument - Professor Emma Bunce\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9a_aEsNlzic?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Meet Dr Simon Lindsay from <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/uniofleicester\">@uniofleicester<\/a>, one of the Instrument Scientists for the MIXS instrument:<br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"BepiColombo MIXS Instrument - Dr Simon Lindsay\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4S59ESX8z0E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Meet Dr Adrian Martindale from <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/uniofleicester\">@uniofleicester<\/a>, one of the Instrument Scientists for the MIXS instrument:<br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"BepiColombo MIXS Instrument - Dr Adrian Martindale\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VTzJWX-o4i0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Meet Dr Charly Feldman from <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/uniofleicester\">@uniofleicester<\/a>, Postdoctorate Research Associate in X-ray Optics for the MIXS instrument:<br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"BepiColombo MIXS Instrument - Dr Charly Feldman\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AOy2AHVaxnE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Meet Dr Suzie Imber from <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/uniofleicester\">@uniofleicester<\/a>, Co-Investigator for the MIXS instrument:<br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"MIXS Instrument on BepiColombo - Dr Suzie Imber\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2blXKWtokLQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Tonight I am really struggling to believe that two years have passed since we witnessed the launch of <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ESA_Bepi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ESA_Bepi<\/a> from Kourou in French Guiana. I will never forget the range of emotions experienced as we watched the launch, and celebrated afterwards! Incredible&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/PVkYKUi85O\">pic.twitter.com\/PVkYKUi85O<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Prof Emma Bunce (@drbuncen) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/drbuncen\/status\/1318281847181291525?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 19, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week (October 15th 2020) the BepiColombo spacecraft made its close approach to Venus, using the flybys (and electric propulsion) to brake against the Sun&#8217;s enormous gravity to reach Mercury in 2025. Although MIXS was sleeping through the event, we celebrated Leicester&#8217;s contribution to the mission. BepiColombo is carrying a piece of cutting-edge technology developed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":256,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-planetary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/256"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":323,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions\/323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}