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

[ngunn]

Surprised no-one has commented on this glitch here:

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002128/

I am hoping that whatever it was wasn't caused by something in the space environment close to Mercury, but was rather a purely internal programming thing that can be avoided by adjusting procedures. If it was a totally random event the timing is extraordinary (but not unprecedented - remember Iapetus). Anybody know anything more?