This paper describes the Thermal Control Subsystem of the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) Module of the BepiColombo mission, an Interdisciplinary Cornerstone Mission to the planet Mercury. Result of a cooperation between ESA and ISAS/JAXA of Japan it is due for launch in 2014. The mission is accomplished by a stack of three distinct modules: two scientific orbiters -the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the Mercury Magnetosphere Orbiter (MMO) -and a propulsion module called Mercury Transfer Module (MTM). The BepiColombo program represents the first European mission to Mercury and carries fifteen Payloads for the Planet observation. The subject of this paper is the Thermal Control Subsystem of MPO. The very harsh thermal environment experienced by the Module changes from a relatively cold condition after the launch (1.15AU distance from Sun) to a very hot condition orbiting Mercury (0.3AU distance from Sun at aphelion plus the infrared heat load from the Planet). The TCS is basically based on the shielding effect of a HighTemperature MLI and the radiator design able to reflect most of the infrared coming from the Planet. The equipment is mounted on the internal structural panels which are connected to the radiator by a certain number of Heat Pipes. Each Payload has a dedicated thermal control typically based on tailored radiators (as cut out of the main one), heat pipes and heaters. Pointing stability requirements are satisfied by mounting the payload on dedicated Optical Bench.

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