OUR
FUTURE
ON
MERCURY
WORDS: STEPHEN BAXTER ILLUSTRATOR: MAGIC TORCH
On 9 May 2016, Mercury will pass
between the Sun and Earth – the
first transit in 10 years. And in 2017,
the Japanese and European space
agencies wil l be launching
BepiColombo – the third ever space
probe to visit Mercury.
Space visionaries contemplate
Mercury with an eye on the future
because the resource-rich world is
close to the Sun and all of its
energy. We asked Stephen Baxter,
renowned science-fiction writer
and member of the British
Interplanetary Society, to envision
how Mercury could be the stepping
stone to exploring the Solar
System and beyond.
RICH IN RESOURCES AND FUEL, THIS PLANET COULD BECOME OUR TICKET
OUT OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Scan this QR Code for
the audio reader
SCIENCE