MESSENGER News Thread, news, updates and discussion Options

[paxdan]

Launched on August 3rd 2004, NASA's MESSENGER will become the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury.

News and updates are availbale via Johns Hopkins University MESSENGER website and the Kennedy Space Center's MESSENGER website.

There will be an earth flyby in August followed by a couple of swings by Venus and three velocity scrubbing passages past mecury before the craft enters orbit in March 2011.

April 18, 2005 status report from JHU. Extensive JHU FAQs page here.

[Buck Galaxy]

Launched on August 3rd 2004, NASA's MESSENGER will become the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury.

News and updates are availbale via Johns Hopkins University MESSENGER website and the Kennedy Space Center's MESSENGER website.

There will be an earth flyby in August followed by a couple of swings by Venus and three velocity scrubbing passages past mecury before the craft enters orbit in March 2011.

April 18, 2005 status report from JHU. Extensive JHU FAQs page here.

I for one can barely wait for Messenger. There is a big section of Mercury we've never seen, and I would love to also see close ups of the huge polar ice deposits.

[Jeff7]

Launched on August 3rd 2004, NASA's MESSENGER will become the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury.

News and updates are availbale via Johns Hopkins University MESSENGER website and the Kennedy Space Center's MESSENGER website.

There will be an earth flyby in August followed by a couple of swings by Venus and three velocity scrubbing passages past mecury before the craft enters orbit in March 2011.

April 18, 2005 status report from JHU. Extensive JHU FAQs page here.

I for one can barely wait for Messenger. There is a big section of Mercury we've never seen, and I would love to also see close ups of the huge polar ice deposits.

"Big section" is putting it mildly. If I recall correctly, one of the Mariner spacecraft was the only probe to go past Mercury, and it photographed only a little over a fourth of the planet.

Ugh, searching for Mercury Mariner on Google turns up more matches for some damn new SUV called just that. Of course, it is a hyrbid with mileage about equal to my car, so I guess I can't really complain.


Why is it such a long time until Messenger gets to Mercury?

Oh, seems NASA anticipated this question. Link. Orbital insertion around something so small requires a slower speed than, say, something like Cassini.

Should definitely be an interesting mission though. That's a fascinating probe too - all the adaptations needed for flying so close to the sun.

[tedstryk]

Mariner 10 Photographed 45% of Mercury, or almost half. But only basically one illumination condition was covered - due to orbital mechanics, the same side was illuminated on all three flybys. And the views of many areas were very forshortened on the limb.