MESSENGER ARRIVES, Mercury Orbit Insertion |
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MESSENGER ARRIVES, Mercury Orbit Insertion |
 Mar 17 2011, 05:29 AM
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#1
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 Senior Member  Group: Admin Posts: 2421 Joined: 21-December 05 From: Canberra, Australia Member No.: 615  |
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). |
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Mar 17 2011, 06:19 AM
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#2
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 Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 6480 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Aim your dishes well, Astro0, and may no passing birds cause the loss of a single bit!
 Very exciting time. "Firsts" just never get old. Best of luck to the entire Messenger team, including of course the FAR too-often unappreciated people who keep the DSN up & running! -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Mar 17 2011, 06:39 AM
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#3
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 618 Joined: 13-February 10 From: Vancouver, British Columbia Member No.: 5221 |
Mercury is a disk already in the 'where is MESSENGER now' view. It's getting exciting already...
-------------------- To a body of infinite size there can be ascribed neither centre nor boundary... Thus the Earth no more than any other world is at the centre. -Giordano Bruno, 1584.
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Mar 17 2011, 12:15 PM
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#4
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 332 Joined: 11-April 08 From: Sydney, Australia Member No.: 4093 |
7.9 billion kilometers just to get there. That makes it one of the longest distances flown by a spacecraft:
(http://www.dmuller.net/spaceflight/realstats.php?stats=flown). Anyway, my standard realtime simulation is now updated for MOI: http://www.dmuller.net/messenger -------------------- |
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| Guest_Sunspot_* |
Mar 17 2011, 02:25 PM
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#5
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Guests |
I can't get "Mars" Orbit Insertion (MOI) out of my head, rather than Mercury Orbit Insertion (MOI) !!!!
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Mar 17 2011, 07:24 PM
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#6
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 Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1153 Joined: 25-November 04 Member No.: 114 |
Is there a way to listen to MOI via my cell phone?
I would love to watch but I'm working at that time. Audio would be great! Any help? |
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Mar 17 2011, 07:55 PM
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#7
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Member Group: Members Posts: 435 Joined: 24-March 04 From: Finland Member No.: 63 |
Answering my own post: looks like that the Nasa-TV schedule has been updated and Messenger will be followed on Nasa-TV from 19:55 ESST onwards: 7:55 p.m. - MESSENGER: Mercury Orbit Insertion Coverage from APL - APL/HQ (ALL Channels) -------------------- Antti Kuosmanen
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Mar 17 2011, 10:24 PM
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#8
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 242 Joined: 23-January 05 From: Seattle, WA Member No.: 156 |
Since this mission's run by JHUAPL and not JPL, do we still need to get our dry-roasted peanuts for MOI?
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Mar 17 2011, 10:35 PM
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#9
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Newbie Group: Members Posts: 17 Joined: 31-December 10 From: Earth Member No.: 5589 |
QUOTE (dmuller @ Mar 17 2011, 07:15 AM)  7.9 billion kilometers just to get there. That makes it one of the longest distances flown by a spacecraft: (http://www.dmuller.net/spaceflight/realstats.php?stats=flown). Anyway, my standard realtime simulation is now updated for MOI: http://www.dmuller.net/messenger Shouldn't the last item on that list read "Start of first mission extension"? |
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Mar 17 2011, 11:36 PM
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#10
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 Administrator Group: Chairman Posts: 13248 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
It's in Eyes on the Solar System as well - complete with the change of attitude, and the engine burn
http://go.usa.gov/4u1(shortcut works great in Firefox/Safari/IE - but there's a bug that we need to sort out about Chrome) |
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Mar 17 2011, 11:37 PM
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#11
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 Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 2817 Joined: 11-February 04 From: Tucson, AZ Member No.: 23 |
Good to know! I tried getting MESSENGER to work in Celestia with the spice kernels available from the PDS, but it keeps balking
-------------------- &@^^!% Jim! I'm a geologist, not a physicist!
The Gish Bar Times - A Blog all about Jupiter's Moon Io |
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Mar 18 2011, 12:30 AM
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#12
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Forum Contributor Group: Members Posts: 905 Joined: 8-February 04 From: North East Florida, USA. Member No.: 11 |
Hello everyone.
Pretty exciting ! |
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Mar 18 2011, 12:31 AM
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#13
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Member Group: Members Posts: 114 Joined: 27-September 10 Member No.: 5458 |
QUOTE It's in Eyes on the Solar System as well Yes and Mercury is getting quite large on the screen. Eyes On The Solar System is definitely a great tool!
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Mar 18 2011, 12:43 AM
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#14
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Member Group: Members Posts: 109 Joined: 31-October 08 Member No.: 4473 |
I like the Irish music in the background of some of the on-line presentations. Nice!
Being part of this exploration history never gets old... |
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Mar 18 2011, 12:56 AM
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#15
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Member Group: Members Posts: 618 Joined: 13-February 10 From: Vancouver, British Columbia Member No.: 5221 |
Start of burn confirmed, looking at Doppler.
-------------------- To a body of infinite size there can be ascribed neither centre nor boundary... Thus the Earth no more than any other world is at the centre. -Giordano Bruno, 1584.
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