MESSENGER News Thread, news, updates and discussion Options

[paxdan]

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.

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

Actually, it might be doable with a smaller booster. The question is how fast a flyby speed at Mercury you're willing to put up with during the sampling. Messenger will make multiple gravity-assist flybys of Mercury to slow itself down in order to minimize the fuel it has to burn at Mercury Orbit Insertion, but that problem doesn't apply to a nonstop smash-and-grab sampling flyby. The question is the speed at which the collected particles can plow through the aerogel before the frictional heat ruins them for scientific analysis.

But if you are willing to make that sampling run during your first flyby of Mercury, then making your way back to Earth via Venus gravity-asssist flybys becomes much easier and shorter.