The ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission will provide simultaneous measurements from two spacecraft, offering an unprecedented opportunity to investigate magnetospheric The BepiColombo mission to Mercury Edited by Johannes Benkhoff, Go Murakami and Ayako Matsuoka B A. Milillo

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The Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer is a highly novel instrument that is designed to map Mercury’s elemental composition from orbit at two angular resolutions. By observing the fluorescence X-rays generated when solar-coronal X-rays and charged particles interact with the surface regolith, MIXS will be able to measure the atomic composition of the upper ∼10-20 μm of Mercury’s surface on the day-side. Through precipitating particles on the night-side, MIXS will also determine the dynamic interaction of the planet’s surface with the surrounding space environment. MIXS is composed of two complementary elements: MIXS-C is a collimated instrument which will achieve global coverage at a similar spatial resolution to that achieved (in the northern hemisphere only – i.e. ∼ 50 – 100 km) by MESSENGER; MIXS-T is the first ever X-ray telescope to be sent to another planet and will, during periods of high solar activity (or intense precipitation of charged particles), reveal the X-ray flux from Mercury at better than 10 km resolution. The design, performance, scientific goals and operations plans of the instrument are discussed, including the initial results from commissioning in space.

The Moon and Mercury are airless bodies, thus they are directly exposed to the ambient plasma (ions and electrons), to photons mostly from the Sun from infrared range all the way to X-rays, and to meteoroid fluxes. Direct exposure to these exogenic sources has important consequences for the formation and evolution of planetary surfaces, including altering their chemical makeup and optical properties, and generating neutral gas exosphere. The formation of a thin atmosphere, more specifically a surface bound exosphere, the relevant physical processes for the particle release, particle loss, and the drivers behind these processes are discussed in this review.

The cruise phase involved six planetary gravity assist maneuvers, three of which involved Mercury. After an extremely successful, twice-extended four-year mission, producing many ground-breaking results (see for example Solomon et al., 2018), the probe was de-orbited and impacted the planetary surface on 30 April 2015.In order to study the planet's magnetosphere as well as its surface, MESSENGER's orbit was highly elliptical and near-polar, with a periapsis altitude of 200-500 km over the northern pole and an apoapsis of 15,000 or 10,000 km (before and after an orbit adjustment on 20 April 2012) above the southern hemisphere. The orbit plane was fixed with respect to the line of apsides of the Mercury orbit, and as such the planet rotated underneath the spacecraft approximately every 118 spacecraft orbits (McAdams et al., 2007) -one Mercury sidereal dayproviding global coverage.The X-Ray Spectrometer, XRS (Schlemm et al., 2007), was part of the MESSENGER surface geochemistry suite of instruments. It was a gas proportional counter-based X-ray fluorescence spectrometer with a 12° hexagonal field of view, using three cylinders (GPCs 1, 2 and 3) filled with an Ar/CH 4 mixture, two of which (GPCs 1 and 2) were equipped with elemental filters to allow separation of the Mg/Al/Si peaks in the range 1.2-1.8 keV. XRS was paired with the Solar Assembly for X-rays (SAX), a Si PIN diode operating as a solar X-ray monitor. SAX was mounted in the spacecraft sunshield and as such was always pointing within 12° of the spacecraft-Sun

A 16-year-old girl is admitted with a paracetamol overdose, but refuses treatment. This article explores the legal, ethical and practical aspects of this case, which led ultimately to an application to the court for a judicial order.

The MESSENGER spacecraft conducted its first flyby of Mercury on 14th January 2008, followed by two subsequent encounters on 6th October 2008 and 29th September 2009, prior to Mercury orbit insertion on 18th March 2011. We have reviewed MESSENGER flight telemetry and X-ray Spectrometer observations from the first two encounters, and correlate several prominent features in the data with the presence of astrophysical X-ray sources in the instrument field of view. We find that two X-ray peaks attributed in earlier work to the detection of suprathermal electrons from the Mercury magnetosphere, are likely to contain a significant number of events that are of astrophysical origin. The intensities of these two peaks cannot be explained entirely on the basis of astrophysical sources, and we support the previous suprathermal explanation but suggest that the electron fluxes derived in those studies be revised to correct for a significant astrophysical signal.

You are the consultant on call. It's midnight and the phone rings An 89-year-old woman has been admitted via the Emergency Department with severe breathlessness and is now on a general ward. She is cachectic, with extensive abdominal surgical scars, and is severely demented (with a 4x/day carer package). A medical note relating to 'referral to a palliative care team' is found on the electronic system, but there are no details. Her daughter says that she has no further information to offer, but that she has power of attorney. The daughter has earlier refused to accept that a DNAR order be put in place. An hour ago, the patient vomited and aspirated and suffered a cardiac arrest. Five cycles of CPR later, the daughter is insistent that her mother goes to ICU. Your registrar wants to know what to do.