MESSENGER News Thread, news, updates and discussion |
MESSENGER News Thread, news, updates and discussion |
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#1
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![]() Member ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 562 Joined: 29-March 05 Member No.: 221 ![]() |
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. |
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#2
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Senior Member ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 1870 Joined: 20-February 05 Member No.: 174 ![]() |
Uh... doesn't Messenger have a laser altimiter?... that measures reflectance, as well as delay-time which equals range...
I'd have to check, but I thought it did... |
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#3
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![]() Senior Member ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 2488 Joined: 17-April 05 From: Glasgow, Scotland, UK Member No.: 239 ![]() |
I'm reminded of the darkside images taken of the Moon by Clementine - I wonder how well Venus will illuminate the shadowed parts of Mercury (obviously, at the right time of the Mercurian year it'll be *much* brighter).
-------------------- Remember: Time Flies like the wind - but Fruit Flies like bananas!
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#4
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![]() Senior Member ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 2530 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 321 ![]() |
QUOTE (Bob Shaw @ May 31 2005, 04:19 AM) I'm reminded of the darkside images taken of the Moon by Clementine - I wonder how well Venus will illuminate the shadowed parts of Mercury (obviously, at the right time of the Mercurian year it'll be *much* brighter). A full Venus has an absolute magnitude about 4 times that of the Earth, but is 130 times farther from Mercury than Earth is from the Moon. Venusshine onto Mercury should thus be about 1/4200 of the effect of earthshine on the Moon. Depending upon the specs of a camera, that could be used for some imaging, although I suspect that the Messenger camera would not be built for light-sensitivity the way, say, New Horizon's are. The kicker: if the polar areas never see the Sun due to the geometry, they'll never see Venus either. |
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#5
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![]() Senior Member ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 2488 Joined: 17-April 05 From: Glasgow, Scotland, UK Member No.: 239 ![]() |
Darn - I hadn't thought of that, and it's probably pretty obvious! Not only will libration effects be pretty minimal (unlike the Earth-Moon situation, where something interesting might be a goer), but as Venus and Mercury are probably in all sorts of orbital resonances there's likely to be only a few chances to view the same areas, badly illuminated at best. Oh, well, back to the drawing board.
OK, what about the Zodiacal Light... Reflections from Comets... Starlight... -------------------- Remember: Time Flies like the wind - but Fruit Flies like bananas!
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#6
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![]() Member ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 154 Joined: 17-March 05 Member No.: 206 ![]() |
QUOTE (Bob Shaw @ May 31 2005, 12:04 PM) Or how about a high-yield fusion bomb detonated in orbit? Use it like a giant flash-bulb to take a picture! ![]() You could even use the x-rays generated by the explosion to look for hydrogen. |
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