MESSENGER News Thread, news, updates and discussion |
MESSENGER News Thread, news, updates and discussion |
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![]() Member ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 562 Joined: 29-March 05 Member No.: 221 ![]() |
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. |
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#2
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![]() Member ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 903 Joined: 30-January 05 Member No.: 162 ![]() |
I was hoping that since Messenger was launched on a mid size rocket, and that a large part of the delta vee is from the grav. assists at earth Venus, and Mercury, a big Titan IV (or whatever the big launcher is now) could send a useful vehicle on a two way trip. The 'smash and grab' idea for a sample return I saw here is just starting to seem a little more doable, perhaps . . . .
Amazing to be looking at these (formerly) exotic trajectories, from Mercury sample returns to Pluto landers, it just keeps getting better all the time. ![]() |
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