- Giuseppe Colombo
Giuseppe Colombo (
October 2 ,1920 –February 20 ,1984 ), better known by his nickname Bepi Colombo, was an Italianscientist ,mathematician andengineer at theUniversity of Padua ,Italy . Not to be confused with the Italian engineer Giuseppe Colombo (1836 - 1921).Mercury
He is best known for his work on the planet Mercury, and it was his calculations on how to get a spacecraft into a resonant orbit with Mercury with multiple fly-bys that led to the success of the
Mariner 10 mission.Colombo also explained the spin-orbit resonance in Mercury's orbit, showing that it rotates twice for every three orbits around the sun.
Saturn's rings
Colombo also made significant contributions to the study of Saturn's rings, mostly using ground-based observations in the era before space exploration reached the outer solar system.
Other contributions
Colombo 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.Legacy
The planned ESA mission to Mercury is named
BepiColombo in his honor. The Colombo Gap in Saturn's rings is also named for him.References
* [http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/Pr_40_1999_p_EN.html ESA Press Release: ESA's Mercury mission named BepiColombo in honour of a space pioneer]
External links
* [http://cisas.unipd.it/Colombo_e.php Biography from the University of Padua]
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