Japan and Europe Plan a Mission to Mercury
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Japan and the European Space Agency are planning a joint mission that would be the first to land a probe on Mercury.
Three probes would map the topography and study the origins of the closest planet to the sun.
Russian Soyuz rockets are expected to launch the probes starting in 2010. They would reach Mercury about four years later, with one probe landing on the planet and the other two orbiting and charting its surface for a year.
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