Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Giuseppe Colombo
Giuseppe Colombo (1920-1984), better known by his nickname, Bepi Colombo, was a scientist, mathematician and engineer at the University of Padua, Italy. He is best known for his work on the planet Mercury, and it was his calculations on how to get a spacecraft into orbit around Mercury that led to the success of the Mariner 10 mission.
Colombo also explained the resonance in Mercury's orbit, showing that it rotates twice for every three orbits around the sun. He invented tethers for tying satellites together. He also participated in the planning of Giotto, the European Space Agency's mission to Halley's Comet, but died before the spacecraft was launched. The planned ESA mission to Mercury is named BepiColombo in his honor.
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10-26-2009 08:16:03
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The contents of this article is licensed from www.wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details