UM-Bot Posted May 1, 2015 #1 Share Posted May 1, 2015 After more than a decade in space NASA's Messenger spacecraft has ended its mission with a bang. Launched aboard a Delta II rocket in August 2004, Messenger flew by Mercury three times before eventually settling in to orbit in 2011. Read More: http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/281014/messenger-spacecraft-smashes-in-to-mercury 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
She-ra Posted May 1, 2015 #2 Share Posted May 1, 2015 Oh no! That's horrible news Thanks for the post. It gathered a heck of a lot of information and lasted way longer than thought to though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imaginarynumber1 Posted May 1, 2015 #3 Share Posted May 1, 2015 So ling, little buddy. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acute Posted May 1, 2015 #4 Share Posted May 1, 2015 How would we feel about ET's from Mercury crashing space probes into the Earth? I will be writing a strongly-worded email to NASA about this! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie_Dwarf Posted May 1, 2015 #5 Share Posted May 1, 2015 Oh no! That's horrible news Hardly horrible news, it's exactly what was planned to happen. MESSENGER had used all it's fuel, meaning that it had ended it's useful life. If it had remained in orbit around Mercury it could have posed a threat for future missions (the European/Japanese mission to Mercury, BepiColombo, launches in two years). A deliberate impact on the surface removes the potential threat. This is how NASA ends most of it's planetary and lunar missions. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
She-ra Posted May 1, 2015 #6 Share Posted May 1, 2015 Hardly horrible news, it's exactly what was planned to happen. MESSENGER had used all it's fuel, meaning that it had ended it's useful life. If it had remained in orbit around Mercury it could have posed a threat for future missions (the European/Japanese mission to Mercury, BepiColombo, launches in two years). A deliberate impact on the surface removes the potential threat. This is how NASA ends most of it's planetary and lunar missions. Thanks for this Waspie. Sorry for my ignorance on some things. Thanks for clarifying that to me. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eldorado Posted May 1, 2015 #7 Share Posted May 1, 2015 If NASA send a new messenger I hope they don't name it 'Skype'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astra. Posted May 1, 2015 #8 Share Posted May 1, 2015 Farewell Messenger. A salute to a job well done. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merc14 Posted May 1, 2015 #9 Share Posted May 1, 2015 Messenger did an amazing job in a hostile environment and far exceeded expectations with all the instruments still working perfectly till the very end. How awesome would it have been to be standing on the surface of Mercury when Messenger went flying by at 900 feet and ten times the speed of sound on its last orbit? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foil Hat Ninja Posted May 1, 2015 #10 Share Posted May 1, 2015 Live fast, die young, leave a tennis court-sized crater. I wonder if the information they gathered was surprising enough that they're currently drafting a posthumous apology to Immanuel Velikovsky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paperdyer Posted May 1, 2015 #11 Share Posted May 1, 2015 Does anyone know what type of heat shield was used? It must have been pretty hot for the little guy while in orbit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merc14 Posted May 1, 2015 #12 Share Posted May 1, 2015 Does anyone know what type of heat shield was used? It must have been pretty hot for the little guy while in orbit. From the John Hokins, APL website http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/spacecraft/thermal.html Thermal Design Inspection of MESSENGER's sunshade prior to thermal vaccum testing While orbiting Mercury, MESSENGER will “feel” significantly hotter than spacecraft that orbit Earth. This is because Mercury’s elongated orbit swings the planet to within 46 million kilometers (29 million miles) of the Sun, or about two-thirds closer to the Sun than Earth. As a result, the Sun shines up to 11 times brighter at Mercury than we see from our own planet. MESSENGER’s first line of thermal defense is a heat-resistant and highly reflective sunshade, fixed on a titanium frame to the front of the spacecraft. Measuring about 2.5 meters (8 feet) tall and 2 meters (6 feet) across, the thin shade has front and back layers of Nextel ceramic cloth – the same material that protects sections of the Space Shuttle – surrounding several inner layers of Kapton plastic insulation. While temperatures on the front of the shade could reach 370° C (about 700° F) when Mercury is closest to the Sun, behind it the spacecraft will operate at room temperature, around 20° C (about 70° F). Multilayered insulation covers most of the spacecraft. Radiators and diode (“one-way”) heat pipes are installed to carry heat away from the spacecraft body, and the science orbit is designed to limit MESSENGER’s exposure to heat re-radiating from the surface of Mercury. (MESSENGER will only spend about 25 minutes of each 12-hour orbit crossing Mercury’s broiling surface at low altitude.) The combination of the sunshade, thermal blanketing, and heat-radiation system allows the spacecraft to operate without special high-temperature electronics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paperdyer Posted May 1, 2015 #13 Share Posted May 1, 2015 Thanks Merc14. With this "shade" we can get a new answer to the old (non PC) blond joke about traveling to the Sun instead of "silly, we'll go at night!" 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merc14 Posted May 1, 2015 #14 Share Posted May 1, 2015 Thanks Merc14. With this "shade" we can get a new answer to the old (non PC) blond joke about traveling to the Sun instead of "silly, we'll go at night!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeastieRunner Posted May 1, 2015 #15 Share Posted May 1, 2015 Why not crash it into the sun? The readings would've been fantastic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiltedmusician Posted May 1, 2015 #16 Share Posted May 1, 2015 I wonder how many planets we have put man made objects on now. The moon, mars, mercury, where else? Venus? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herr Falukorv Posted May 1, 2015 #17 Share Posted May 1, 2015 The reason why they crashed it is so that the aliens wont get ahold of our awesome technology.. Just think how they conspire there now (mercury military) that it wasn't a spacecraft from earth is was a weatherballoon.. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merc14 Posted May 1, 2015 #18 Share Posted May 1, 2015 Why not crash it into the sun? The readings would've been fantastic! It was out of fuel and wasn't designed to study a star, plus we have several space-borne observatories watching and studying the sun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acute Posted May 2, 2015 #19 Share Posted May 2, 2015 Does anyone know what type of heat shield was used? It didn't need a heat shield, because it all took place in the same Disney studio where the moon landings were faked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qxcontinuum Posted May 2, 2015 #20 Share Posted May 2, 2015 RIP (Rest in Pieces) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astra. Posted May 2, 2015 #21 Share Posted May 2, 2015 (edited) On it's finale - Messenger was predicted to impact on the surface at nearly 4 kilometers per second. In other words - over 8,700 miles per hour - and creating a new crater. It's totally mind boggling http://apod.nasa.gov...d/ap150501.html Edited May 2, 2015 by Astra- 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JesseCuster Posted May 2, 2015 #22 Share Posted May 2, 2015 I wonder how many planets we have put man made objects on now. The moon, mars, mercury, where else? Venus? The USSR landed a probe on Venus in the 1970s and an ESA probe, Huygens, landed on Titan in 2005. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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