Editing Giuseppe Colombo (section)

== Mercury ==

Colombo studied the planet [[Mercury (planet)|Mercury]], and it was his calculations which showed how to get a spacecraft into a solar orbit which would encounter Mercury multiple times, using a [[gravity assist]] manoeuvre with Venus. Due to this idea, [[NASA]] was able to have the [[Mariner 10]] accomplish three fly-bys of Mercury instead of one.<ref>{{cite web  |url=https://www.esa.int/About_Us/Welcome_to_ESA/ESA_history/Giuseppe_Bepi_Colombo_Grandfather_of_the_fly-by |title=Giuseppe Bepi Colombo Grandfather of the fly-by |work=Welcome to ESA |accessdate=6 January 2019}}</ref> [[Mariner 10]] was the first <ref name="Mission Overview">{{cite web|title=Mariner 10|url=http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/profile.cfm?MCode=Mariner_10&Display=ReadMore|date=30 November 2010|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140219012506/http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/profile.cfm?MCode=Mariner_10&Display=ReadMore |archive-date = 19 February 2014|url-status=dead|accessdate=6 January 2019}}</ref> spacecraft to use gravity assist. Since then, the technique has become common.

Colombo also explained the [[Tidal locking|spin-orbit]] [[Orbital resonance|resonance]] in Mercury's orbit, showing that it rotates three times for every two orbits around the Sun.