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.

[JRehling]

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.

As others noted, Mariner 10 imaged about 45% of the surface, not all well. Radar has provided some nice additional coverage, not all of which is available publicly.

But we're not going to see the polar ice deposits, at least not in visible wavelengths. They are, if they exist at all, in areas of permanent shade. It wouldn't take much sunlight at 0.4 AU to melt (vaporize) ice.

I suppose it's possible that a crater floor could be imaged in light reflected off of the crater wall, if imaging conditions are just right, and if that kind of lighting isn't enough to make any such parcel of ice disappear.