Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
The BepiColombo mission to Mercury planned by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has been given the green light for an August 2013 launch.
The vehicle will carry two probes. The European contribution will be the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO), while JAXA will provide the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO).
The MPO and MMO will be delivered to the closest planet to the Sun under electrical and chemical propulsion. A route via the Moon, Earth and Venus will allow the craft to reach Mercury with the relatively weak thrust provided by its solar-electric motors. Conventional chemical rockets will take it into orbit around Mercury.
The MPO will carry ten scientific instruments funded by ESA member states and one from Russia, while four of the five on the MMO will be paid for Japan and one by Europe.
The whole package will be launched on a Soyuz Fregat rocket from French Guyana. The prime contractor for the construction phase of the mission will be Germany-based Astrium.
The only previous mission to Mercury was NASA's Mariner 10 in 1973-75.
David Bass
| ComOps, a leading Australian provider of business software products and services, has won a competitive tender to deploy its Salvus safety, r…
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