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To: BenLurkin

> That’s thanks to the BepiColombo mission… <

The US names its space missions well. Apollo, Voyager, etc.

But BepiColombo? That sounds like a name of a cartoon detective.


8 posted on 09/06/2026 6:54:55 AM PDT by Leaning Right
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To: Leaning Right

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BepiColombo#Names

BepiColombo is named after Giuseppe “Bepi” Colombo (1920–1984), a scientist, mathematician, and engineer at the University of Padua, Italy, who first proposed the interplanetary gravity assist manoeuvre used by the 1974 Mariner 10 mission, a technique now used frequently by planetary probes.[21]

Mio, the name of the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter, was selected from thousands of suggestions by the Japanese public. In Japanese, Mio means a waterway, and according to JAXA, it symbolizes the research and development milestones reached thus far, and wishes for safe travel ahead. JAXA said the spacecraft will travel through the solar wind just like a ship traveling through the ocean.[22] In Chinese and Japanese, Mercury is known as the “water star” (水星) according to wǔxíng.[23][24]


21 posted on 09/06/2026 7:34:07 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple ((Thinking Caps are no longer being issued, but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere))
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To: Leaning Right

“Thanks for our cooperation, Mercury. I’ll be going along now. Oh, just one more question!”


35 posted on 09/06/2026 8:37:09 AM PDT by Larry Lucido (Donate! Don't just post clickbait.)
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To: Leaning Right
But BepiColombo? That sounds like a name of a cartoon detective.

I think you are thinking of "Pepe Columbo". ;-)

47 posted on 09/06/2026 9:42:35 AM PDT by Empire_of_Liberty
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