spacecraft: ESA/ATG medialab; Mercury: NASA/JPL

It’s time to return to Mercury. The solar system’s boiling-hot innermost planet will have a visitor soon – a probe called BepiColombo, which is set to launch in October 2018. After seven years of journeying through the inner solar system, the spacecraft will enter Mercury’s orbit in 2025, and help to unravel the mysteries of this tiny, scorched planet.

Mercury is a bit of an enigma. Despite being so close to the sun and reaching temperatures of 350°C, NASA’s Messenger probe saw what looked like ice in the craters near the planet’s poles when it passed by in 2012. Messenger also found that Mercury has a tenuous atmosphere, even though it is blasted with intense radiation from the sun. And in 1974, NASA’s Mariner 10 probe detected a magnetic field on Mercury – a surprising find, as Venus, Mars, and the moon don’t have one.

BepiColombo is a joint mission between the European and Japanese space agencies. The spacecraft is made up of two orbiters anchored together for the journey to Mercury, which will separate when they reach the planet. There, they will have to withstand the unceasing heat and radiation that makes Mercury such a difficult planet to visit. Instead of ad astra – a phrase invoked in spaceflight that means ‘to the stars’ – we might say to BepiColombo: ad infernum.

Emma Bunce, of the University of Leicester, UK, will be explaining all about the mission at New Scientist Live in London on 20 September. Bruce is the lead scientist for a crucial piece of scientific equipment on BepiColombo, and has worked on many missions to explore our solar system.

New Scientist Live is our award-winning festival of ideas and discoveries. The four-day event will feature more than 110 speakers giving thought-provoking talks on everything from neutrinos to gravitational waves.