I just went to the Messenger site to see if any new pics down yet. But no. Although I liked yours, I thought I would take the "old" one and have a bit more of a look at the terminator while we're waiting.

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Pardon my ignorance,but what's a wavelett????

Surprised no-one has commented on this glitch here:

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002128/

I am hoping that whatever it was wasn't caused by something in the space environment close to Mercury, but was rather a purely internal programming thing that can be avoided by adjusting procedures. If it was a totally random event the timing is extraordinary (but not unprecedented - remember Iapetus). Anybody know anything more?

Better view into new territory.
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/scienc...5G_RA_3_web.png

According to Twitter - the first thought is that they were on the wrong Antenna.
http://twitter.com/messenger2011

That's reassuring, thanks Doug.

I think the latest image via peter59 already closes the gap at low latitudes. If I'm not mistaken the bright crater on the limb near the equator with the prominent northward trending ray is on the other side of 'terra incognita'. Also we can already see converging E-W rays in the southern hemisphere from the very prominent crater up ahead.

This is the new view converted to an (approximate) stereographic projection. That makes craters near the limb circular so you can interpret features more easily. Very extensive smooth plains in the north.

Phil

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The latest, via Twitter, is that MESSENGER safed just before closest approach. No high-res images on departure But since the flyby didn't involve any thruster firing, the gravity assist should have been successful. All approach imaging should have been done, so that last gore should be filled.

It also makes it look like Mercury just came out of the dryer.

New, nice image.
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/scienc...1M_RA_3_web.png

Classic.

I'm very happy that their latest release is of this cool-looking double-ring basin, which was only half-seen on the previous flyby.

That just clinches it: there's an alien ship out there, tailing our spaceprobes, with a load of mischevious, drunk, giggling ET teenagers inside it, just waiting to fire their "Put little toy alien spacecraft into safe mode at just the worst possible moment!" ray at them...

Pesky alien kids!!!

A couple more reprojections:

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Phil

Yes, back in the old days, we didn't know to fear safe modes during flybys. But this time I did...
Was it actually first safe mode event for MESSENGER?

Some nice crater chains approx radial to that double ringed basin.

Does it have a name?

P

Great reprojs, Phil!

Noticed a crater that's apparently been buried by a lava flow (arrowed).

Yes, and a similarly buried big double-ring basin near the top of the same image.

Phil

I was struck by this one's symmetry...didn't have much time to melt down the rim walls, did it? Interesting.

it will be nice when the images get here
http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/Admin/reso..._messenger.html
and i can remove the stripe from my map

OK, no serious harm done this time but I sure hope there won't be a flyby #4 in March 2011.

Maybe this story can shed some light on it? http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/29sep_cosmicrays.htm More cosmic rays.

I suspect they'll disable a bunch of fault handling before executing the MOI burn, the same way New Horizons plans to disable most of onboard fault protection during the Pluto flyby.

Yeah -- fault handling on gravity assist flybys or opportunistic encounters is way, way different than for planned science flybys. Remember how OSIRIS on Rosetta safed before the Steins flyby, and how Dawn safed during its Mars flyby. On such encounters science is way, way down the list compared to spacecraft health. If the flyby is just for science, as with NH at Pluto and Mariner 10's Mercury flybys, then they disable a lot of the fault protection.

--Emily

Galactic cosmic rays could have impacted the spacecraft at any time, regardless of its position relative to the planet.
The fact that this event came just as Messenger entered Mercury's shadow offers a strong hint that it was somehow
related to that transition. That said, I guess some of those 7000+ stored flyby commands could have been corrupted
by a CR incident, and we would not have discovered it until it came time to execute them.

Note - This was WRT Sunspot's earlier post. The subsequent posts are acknowledged with some relief.

Commands are not typically as data intensive as science data so it's cheap to have several backup copies of them onboard. That goes for the flight software itself. There are ways very high priority maneuvers can be protected against memory and even processor trips via cosmic rays and several computers with redundant processing is one for example.

Error correction both in uplink and memory make this quite unlikely.

Most safe mode entries have to do with loss of attitude reference. Flybys often provide opportunities for unexpected star camera problems from planetlight or occultations.

Here's a version of my map with the Flyby 3 sliver added in. This uses WAC and NAC images. I plan to add the Mariner map & radar data back in and then try adding one of VP's mosaics.

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That's the latest,

Steve

And here is that version...

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Steve

Steve great work!

Do you have a Messenger Map Only version? (A strange request from my father)

I can understand Decepticon's father's request. With all this wonderful MESSENGER data, the Mariner 10 imagery seems... undesired.

i have a flyby 1 and 2 only map on a dvd. If you want i can post it
for a preview you can look at the map on the celestia motherlode
it is combined with the very old map .
http://celestiamotherlode.net/catalog/show...p?addon_id=1244

Greetings all. I can appreciate and muse about various aspects of this request. I did a MESSENGER only map for Emily I think with the first 2 flybys. The MESSENGER site used to show their map without the Mariner, though they now have it added in. From what I've seen so far the Mariner 10 imagery is still of higher resolution near longitude 135W and near the South Pole, so a "best of all" map should maybe still have it in. I tend to keep a long term view of historical context perhaps. Nonetheless it's interesting to see what a MESSENGER only map looks like and it can of course be compared to the "both" map (also with radar).

Right now I happen to be in between two vacation trips, but I'll consider this in a bit. It might be fairly simple to add a switch that turns off the Mariner and radar imagery in my IDL procedure.

Catch you later,

Steve

The Mariner 10 data that really looks different is the south polar mosaic because it is a 1970s creation. Making a clean, modern version of it is on my to-do list.

Greetings, here is a MESSENGER only version that Decepticon's father may want to look at:

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...and an updated version of the one including Mariner and radar data for comparison:

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Steve

WOW! Thanks scalbers!

The latest release, a distant view - enlarged and the terminator brightened.

Phil

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apologies for resurrecting this old thread, but Science express had yesterday three new preprints on scientific results from M3 (as usual, full papers are available only to subscribers)
Evidence for Young Volcanism on Mercury from the Third MESSENGER Flyby
MESSENGER Observations of Extreme Loading and Unloading of Mercury’s Magnetic Tail
Mercury’s Complex Exosphere: Results from MESSENGER’s Third Flyby