Mercury Flyby 3 Options

[Greg Hullender]

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

[Greg Hullender]

James Leary has discussed a possible extended mission:

http://www.nasa.gov/missions/highlights/we...transcript.html

However, all he said was that they mght get the spacecraft into a slightly lower orbit so as to get slightly better pictures. He didn't suggest that Messenger would ultimately impact Mercury.

Solomon's "Mercury After Messenger" is a very cool read all by itself, and he suggets an XM for Messenger might be just a single Earth year:

http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/pages/ima...n_MESSENGER.pdf

Despite the title, it's mostly about what Messenger will do at Mercury, but it suggests that after Messenger and Bepi-Colombo, there won't be a lot gained by another orbiter. The next step would have to be a lander or sample-return mission.

--Greg