The BepiColombo Laser Altimeter (BELA)
University of Bern's Laser Altimeter BELA has been successfully tested during the last weeks and the last components will be delivered to ESA on 5 October. The first laser altimeter for inter-planetary flight to be built in Europe is part of the ESA BepiColombo mission to Mercury. Starting in 2024, it will provide data about the planet's surface. BELA (BepiColombo Laser Altimeter) has been developed by a Swiss-German-Spanish team led by the University of Bern. The instrument is designed to measure the topography of the planet Mercury, from onboard ESA's space mission, BepiColombo, which is due to launch in April 2018. After an over 80 million kilometer journey, BepiColombo will go into orbit around Mercury in 2024. Entering the third dimension.
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