Mercury Flyby 3 |
Mercury Flyby 3 |
Jul 3 2009, 09:27 PM
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#1
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1018 Joined: 29-November 05 From: Seattle, WA, USA Member No.: 590 |
We're now just one Mercury year (88 days) from flyby #3, which happens on September 29, 2009, so this seems like a good time to start a thread about it.
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/index.php For comparison purposes, it'd be nice if someone (probably someone on the Messenger team) put together a Mercury Map showing what areas will get better coverage from this flyby than from the previous ones. I realize it'll be very similar to flyby #1, but it won't be exactly the same. After that, it's a long wait until MOI on March 18, 2011. Curiously, that's the same date the New Horizons crosses the orbit of Uranus. http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/mission/passingpla...ets_current.php --Greg |
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Aug 3 2009, 06:52 PM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1018 Joined: 29-November 05 From: Seattle, WA, USA Member No.: 590 |
That suggests they might be able to have quite the extended mission, when the time comes. I wonder if this counts as the first successful solar sail application? :-)
--Greg |
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Aug 30 2009, 08:55 PM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 202 Joined: 9-September 08 Member No.: 4334 |
That suggests they might be able to have quite the extended mission, when the time comes. It does sound very promising (and it's really a quite amazing thing that they can correct the course using just radiation pressure! That must take very precise calculations...) Imagine what an inner-system probe with actual sails could do... |
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