MESSENGER News Thread, news, updates and discussion Options

[dilo]

A flyby mosaic (only 7 images)

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

MESSENGER Passes the Billion-Mile Mark!
MESSENGER Status Report
March 24, 2006

[antoniseb]

Messenger is now further from the Sun than the Earth is. It will stay that way for several weeks, and then never again will it be that far from the Sun.

[abalone]

MESSENGER Passes the Billion-Mile Mark!
MESSENGER Status Report
March 24, 2006

What is this mile you speak of??

Sorry to be so petty but there is no place for imperial units in any endevour that promotes itself as being either scientific or international, NASA needs to get a grip!!

[RNeuhaus]

A new update news from Messenger status:

Mercury Messenger Probe Flips Sunshade Towards The Sun

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Mercury_...ds_The_Sun.html

The Messenger spacecraft performed its final "flip" maneuver for the mission on June 21. Responding to commands sent from the Messenger Mission Operations Center at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., through NASA's Deep Space Network antenna station near Goldstone, Calif., the spacecraft rotated 180 degrees, pointing its sunshade toward the Sun.

Rodolfo

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

If this has been mentioned already, pardon the repeat, but for those who do not have access to some of those hard-to-obtain journals, I just noticed the MESSENGER Publications page now has links to several of the references.

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

MESSENGER Mission News
August 3, 2006
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/

________________________________________________________

Happy Anniversary, MESSENGER!

Today marks the second anniversary of MESSENGER’s launch. “It’s still more than four and a half years to Mercury Orbit Insertion in March 2011, and there are many milestones between now and then,” says Dr. Sean C. Solomon, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, who leads the mission as principal investigator. “But it’s worth pausing for a few moments today to appreciate how far we’ve come.”

And just how far has the spacecraft traveled since its Aug. 3, 2004, launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.? Slightly more than 1.275 astronomical units (1 AU is Earth’s distance from the Sun). MESSENGER’s computers have executed 180,271 commands since liftoff, a time interval that includes seven major trajectory correction maneuvers.

“It’s been a busy two years,” says MESSENGER Mission Operations Manager Mark Holdridge, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md. “We’ve been by Earth and now we are headed for Venus, another major milestone in this mission.”

MESSENGER team members have been running tests all summer to make sure the spacecraft will operate as intended during the Venus flyby – the first of two swings past the clouded planet –scheduled for Oct. 24, 2006. There will be a 57-minute solar eclipse during that operation. So on Aug. 11, engineers will turn the spacecraft solar panels edge-on to the Sun and discharge the battery, much in the same manner that the power system will function during the Venus flyby, to verify that the system will respond appropriately.

Two weeks later, on Aug. 21, engineers will conduct a “star-poor” region test, pointing the spacecraft’s star tracker in a region of the sky that might be utilized during the Venus operations Holdridge says a similar test was conducted on July 26, “and we got a positive result from that test; the preliminary results look good.”

All in all, Holdridge says, all systems are functioning very well. “The spacecraft is very healthy, and the team is working hard to make this first flyby of Venus a success!”

For encounter details and graphics associated with the October maneuver, go online to http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/the_mission/ME...enusFlyby1.html

________________________________________________________

MESSENGER Engineer Named AIAA Engineer of the Year

APL’s T. Adrian Hill, the fault protection and autonomy lead for MESSENGER, was recently named Engineer of the Year by the Baltimore chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Each year, local AIAA chapters present this award to a member who has made significant contributions to the field of engineering. For more information, go online to http://www.jhuapl.edu/newscenter/pressrele...006/060623b.asp.

________________________________________________________

Where is Mercury?
Mercury's orbit is so close to the Sun that we can only see it from Earth either just before sunrise or just after sunset. For a diagram of the orbits of the inner planets, as they appear today, go online to http://btc.montana.edu/messenger/wheremerc/wheresmerc.php.

________________________________________________________

MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) is a NASA-sponsored scientific investigation of the planet Mercury and the first space mission designed to orbit the planet closest to the Sun. The MESSENGER spacecraft launched on August 3, 2004, and after flybys of Earth, Venus and Mercury will start a yearlong study of its target planet in March 2011. Dr. Sean C. Solomon, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, leads the mission as principal investigator. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory built and operates the MESSENGER spacecraft and manages this Discovery-class mission for NASA.

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

MESSENGER Mission News
August 4, 2006
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/
______________________________________________________________________________

CORRECTION

The August 3, 2006, MESSENGER Mission News incorrectly stated that the spacecraft had traveled “slightly more than 1.275 astronomical units” since its August 3, 2004, launch from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla. In fact, since lift off MESSENGER has traveled nearly 1.2 billion miles in its orbit around the Sun.

The spacecraft is currently 1.285 astronomical units (AU) distant from the Earth (1 AU equals 93 million miles). To track MESSENGER’s journey, go online to http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/whereis/index.php.

_______________________________________________________________________________

MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) is a NASA-sponsored scientific investigation of the planet Mercury and the first space mission designed to orbit the planet closest to the Sun. The MESSENGER spacecraft launched on August 3, 2004, and after flybys of Earth, Venus and Mercury will start a yearlong study of its target planet in March 2011. Dr. Sean C. Solomon, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, leads the mission as principal investigator. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory built and operates the MESSENGER spacecraft and manages this Discovery-class mission for NASA.

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

MESSENGER Tweaks Its Route to Mercury
MESSENGER Mission News
September 15, 2006

[climber]

A quick reminder : Messenger is only 13 days to Venus flyby.
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/

[mchan]

Noteworthy. Too bad there will not be science observations on this flyby due to conjunction.

[odave]

IIRC the trajectory of this flyby wasn't very interesting for science returns anyway. Though maybe they could try to image that ESA "stealth" orbiter

[ugordan]

This view hardly qualifies as uninteresting: Solar System Simulator view

[odave]

Hmmm. I'll have to find out where I read what I read...

[ugordan]

From what I've seen playing around in the Simulator the past few minutes, it's a very low phase inbound and very high phase outbound encounter. Maybe not very photogenic for global imaging as you'd prefer moderate phase angles (at least I do), but in terms of cloud observation tracking and similar stuff it could have been pretty nice.