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_*]

http://www.space.com/astronotes/astronotes.html : Messenger fired its big engine successfully for almost 9 minutes on Dec. 12 -- the last component of the craft that hadn't been operated until then. So everything works (except for occasional software collywobbles). Now if everything will just continue working...

[ljk4-1]

A thought from someone on another space list:

Will MESSENGER and Venus Express conduct any joint studies on Venus like Galileo and Cassini did with Jupiter in 2000? And if they can and do, what could they do together that they could not do alone?

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

It might be possible during the June 2007 flyby; however, MESSENGER won't be collecting science data during the October 2006 flyby (due to solar conjunction), so that opportunity is out.

[angel1801]

It might be possible during the June 2007 flyby; however, MESSENGER won't be collecting science data during the October 2006 flyby (due to solar conjunction), so that opportunity is out.

This is because Mercury transits the Sun on November 8 (19:14 UT) to November 9 (00:15 UT). And transits can only occur at inferior conjunction ie when Mercury anf Earth line up in a straight line anf Mercury is at "New moon" phase. Mercury is too close to the Earth for a month or so before and after the inferior conjunction for realiable transmission of data.

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

This is because Mercury transits the Sun on November 8 (19:14 UT) to November 9 (00:15 UT). And transits can only occur at inferior conjunction ie when Mercury anf Earth line up in a straight line anf Mercury is at "New moon" phase.

Thanks, angel1801. I think I remember something like that from an Astronomy 101 lecture but my memory is hazy because I was at a frat party the night before.

Mercury is too close to the Earth for a month or so before and after the inferior conjunction for realiable transmission of data.

Comm hiatus for solar conjunctions is a feature of many interplanetary missions. And I think you meant to write "Mercury is too close to the Sun..."

[ugordan]

Comm hiatus for solar conjunctions is a feature of many interplanetary missions. And I think you meant to write "Mercury is too close to the Sun..."

I'm lost. Isn't the next flyby that's not going to be taking any science a Venus flyby? If so, what's Mercury got with it?

I'm also a bit puzzled by this no-science policy. Why couldn't have they programmed the s/c to play the data back a couple of days/weeks later?

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

I'm lost.

Take a number, ugordan. I was "lost" first.

Isn't the next flyby that's not going to be taking any science a Venus flyby? If so, what's Mercury got with it?

Assuming angel1801 was referring to the upcoming Venus flyby, you're right, though rather than issuing two corrections, I gave him/her the benefit of the doubt and assumed he/she was making a general statement with respect to MESSENGER being in orbit around Mercury. That's my "Bruce excuse." In reality, I just wasn't paying too close attention.

This post has been edited by AlexBlackwell: Mar 23 2006, 05:17 PM