Giuseppe Colombo

Giuseppe " Bepi " Colombo ( born October 2, 1920 in Padua, Italy; † 20 February 1984 ) was an Italian engineer and mathematician.

Colombo grew up in his native city of Padua, where he attended elementary and high school. In 1944 he received his doctorate from the University of Pisa in mathematics and returned to his hometown. There he worked as an assistant and associate professor in theoretical mechanics. In 1955, he received the full professorship in applied mechanics at the Faculty of Engineering. He taught vibration and celestial mechanics; in his last years he also taught on the subjects of spacecraft and rockets. In his 64 years he died of cancer.

Achievements and honors

In addition to many other awards, he received the Gold Medal of NASA for outstanding scientific achievement. In 1971 he was awarded the Antonio Feltrinelli Prize -.

At the Astronomical Observatory in Italy Sormano him there that he discovered the asteroid ( 10387 ) BepiColombo is named in honor.

In special honor of his achievements, the European Space Agency ( ESA) was named in 1999 the project of a Mercury orbiter after him, that they had just decided - BepiColombo. The well-known by his nickname Bepi professor at the University of Padua, was instrumental in the planning of the so far only completed Mercury Mariner 10 mission. He suggested that trajectory on which they do a swing-by of Venus carried out against the first probe and then repeats the Mercury happened - three times in working condition. Giuseppe " Bepi " Colombo also provided based on various observations a prediction for the exact period of the peculiar rotation of the target planet. He was also one of the initiators of the Giotto mission to comet Halley and had suggested the name for the probe.