MESSENGER ARRIVES, Mercury Orbit Insertion Options

[Astro0]

Less than 20 hours now until the MESSENGER spacecraft fires its engine to enter orbit at Mercury.

Live Webcast March 17th – broadcast starts at 0030 UTC.

Follow the progress: http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/mer_orbit.html.
There will be commentary on the mission, real-time coverage of the maneuver, animation of what the spacecraft is doing, a view of the carrier’s Doppler as they receive it, and live video from MESSENGER Mission Operations.

Remember that the Canberra DSN is providing two-way communication with MESSENGER
We'll be using both DSS43 (70-metre) and DSS34 (34-metre) antennas.

Good luck to the team at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL).

[elakdawalla]

I *think* Louise said south pole. It's gonna be one of the poles though. I'll be phoning in for the telecon. If anybody thinks of a great question to ask, post here or Tweet me

[Anders]

If anybody thinks of a great question to ask, post here or Tweet me

I am curious about the orbital period of the MESSENGER spacecraft. Is it exactly 12 hours? If so, how was it chosen?

[MahFL]

I am curious about the orbital period of the MESSENGER spacecraft. Is it exactly 12 hours? If so, how was it chosen?

"The MESSENGER team designed the orbit to optimize the scientific yield of the mission and data transfer to Earth, while addressing thermal environment concerns.".

MESSENGER spends most of the time away from the surface to transmit data back to earth, and not to overheat due to reflected heat.