In 2018, one of the most ambitious missions ever planned by the European Space Agency launched on an Ariane 5 rocket from the Kourou Spaceport. Bound for Mercury, the mission was named after Giuseppe ‘Bepi’ Colombo, a mathematician, physicist and astronomer. Colombo was also known as the “celestial mechanic”, a mind out of the ordinary, who could astound colleagues with his simple, ingenious ideas. In 1955 he started teaching and three years later he published his first contribution on celestial mechanics.
In 1961 he became Professor of Mechanical Vibrations at the University of Padua. He demonstrated the relationship between Mercury’s rotation and revolution periods and, invited by NASA to discuss the Mariner 10 mission in 1973, he suggested a change in the probe’s trajectory that would enable not one but three encounters with the planet. He remains a model and an inspiration for new generations of scientists, from Padua to the stars, ever pushing the frontiers of knowledge.
Knowledge is freedom.
In 2018, one of the most ambitious missions ever planned by the European Space Agency launched on an Ariane 5 rocket from the Kourou Spaceport. Bound for Mercury, the mission was named after Giuseppe ‘Bepi’ Colombo, a mathematician, physicist and astronomer. Colombo was also known as the “celestial mechanic”, a mind out of the ordinary, who could astound colleagues with his simple, ingenious ideas. In 1955 he started teaching and three years later he published his first contribution on celestial mechanics. In 1961 he became Professor of Mechanical Vibrations at the University of Padua. He demonstrated the relationship between Mercury’s rotation and revolution periods and, invited by NASA to discuss the Mariner 10 mission in 1973, he suggested a change in the probe’s trajectory that would enable not one but three encounters with the planet. He remains a model and an inspiration for new generations of scientists, from Padua to the stars, ever pushing the frontiers of knowledge.
Knowledge is freedom.