---
license: other
pretty_name: "ESA BepiColombo Observations"
language:
  - en
description: "Complete observation metadata catalog from the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury.  BepiColombo is a joint ESA/JAXA mission to Mercury, launched October 2018. It consists of two orbiters: the Mer"
task_categories:
  - tabular-classification
tags:
  - space
  - mercury
  - bepicolombo
  - esa
  - planetary-science
  - open-data
  - tabular-data
  - parquet
size_categories:
  - 100K<n<1M
configs:
  - config_name: default
    data_files:
      - split: train
        path: data/**/*.parquet
    default: true
---

# ESA BepiColombo Observations

<div align="center">
  <img src="banner.jpg" alt="Mercury as seen by the MESSENGER spacecraft" width="400">
  <p><em>Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Carnegie Institution of Washington</em></p>
</div>

*Part of a [dataset collection](https://huggingface.co/collections/juliensimon/space-probe-and-mission-datasets-69c3fe82d410a42b1e313167) on Hugging Face.*

## Dataset description

Complete observation metadata catalog from the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury.

BepiColombo is a joint ESA/JAXA mission to Mercury, launched October 2018. It consists of two orbiters: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (Mio/MMO). After a 7-year cruise with gravity assists at Earth, Venus (x2), and Mercury (x6), it will enter Mercury orbit in late 2025. During cruise, instruments have been collecting calibration and flyby science data.

Key instruments include MORE (radio science for gravity), MPO-MAG (magnetometer), SIXS (solar X-ray/particle spectrometer), BERM (radiation monitor), MIXS (X-ray spectrometer), SERENA (neutral/ion analyzer), PHEBUS (UV spectrometer), MCAM (monitoring cameras), MGNS (gamma/neutron spectrometer), MERTIS (thermal IR), and BELA (laser altimeter).

The cruise phase data is scientifically valuable in its own right. MPO-MAG has mapped the interplanetary magnetic field along the spacecraft's trajectory, including measurements during Venus and Mercury flybys that provide unique geometry for studying planetary magnetospheres. MORE has conducted superior solar conjunction experiments to test general relativity. SIXS and BERM have monitored the solar particle environment, building a multi-year record of solar energetic particle events and cosmic ray flux variations along the inner heliosphere trajectory. The Mercury flyby observations from MERTIS, MIXS, and MGNS provide early science returns and instrument calibration data ahead of orbital operations.

Each row represents one observation or data granule from the ESA Planetary Science Archive (PSA), conforming to the EPN-TAP standard, with timing, spatial coverage, instrument parameters, and access URLs.

## Instruments

- **MORE**: 89,458 observations
- **MPO-MAG**: 44,432 observations
- **SIXS**: 9,642 observations
- **BERM**: 9,553 observations
- **MIXS**: 6,905 observations
- **SERENA**: 4,469 observations
- **PHEBUS**: 5,827 observations
- **MCAM**: 5,724 observations
- **MGNS**: 3,588 observations
- **MERTIS**: 416 observations
- **BELA**: 36 observations

## Quick stats

- **180,050** total observations
- **11** instruments
- **3** distinct targets
- Time span: JD 2458411.5 -- 0.0

## Usage

```python
from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/esa-bepicolombo-observations", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

# Observations per instrument
print(df["instrument_name"].value_counts())

# MORE radio science observations
more = df[df["instrument_name"] == "MORE"]
print(f"{len(more):,} MORE observations")

# Timeline of observations
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
df["year"] = ((df["time_min"] - 2451545.0) / 365.25 + 2000).astype(int)
df.groupby(["year", "instrument_name"]).size().unstack().plot(kind="bar", stacked=True)
plt.title("BepiColombo observations per year")
plt.ylabel("Count")
plt.show()
```

## Data source

[ESA Planetary Science Archive](https://psa.esa.int/) -- EPN-TAP service at
`https://psa.esa.int/psa-tap/tap/sync`.

## Update schedule

Weekly (Monday at 09:30 UTC)

## Related datasets

- [juliensimon/esa-mars-express-observations](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/esa-mars-express-observations)
- [juliensimon/esa-exomars-tgo-observations](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/esa-exomars-tgo-observations)
- [juliensimon/esa-venus-express-observations](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/esa-venus-express-observations)

## Citation

```bibtex
@dataset{esa_bepicolombo_observations,
  title = {ESA BepiColombo Observations},
  author = {juliensimon},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/esa-bepicolombo-observations},
  publisher = {Hugging Face}
}
```

## License

[CC-BY-4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)