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Exploration Of Mercury


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Approaching Venus

The MESSENGER spacecraft snapped a series of images as it approached Venus on June 5. The planet is enshrouded by a global layer of clouds that obscures its surface to the MESSENGER Dual Imaging System (MDIS) cameras.

This single frame is part of a color sequence taken to help the MESSENGER team calibrate the camera in preparation for the spacecraft’s first flyby of Mercury on January 14, 2008. Over the next several months the camera team will pore over the 614 images taken during this Venus encounter to ascertain color sensitivity and other optical properties of the instrument. These tasks address two key goals for the camera at Mercury: understanding surface color variations and their relation to compositional variations in the crust, and ensuring accurate cartographic placement of features on Mercury’s surface.

Preliminary analysis of the Venus flyby images indicates that the cameras are healthy and will be ready for next January’s close encounter with Mercury.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington


Source: JHUAPL - MESSENGER - Picures
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Departure Sequence Summary

After acquiring hundreds of high-resolution images during close approach to Venus, MESSENGER turned its wide-angle camera back to the planet and acquired a departure sequence. These images provide a spectacular good-bye to the cloud-shrouded planet while also providing valuable data to the camera calibration team.

The first image was taken June 6 at 12:58 UTC (8:58 p.m. EDT on June 5), and the final image on June 7 at 02:18 UTC (10:18 p.m. EDT on June 6). During this 25 hour, 20 minute period the spacecraft traveled 833,234 kilometers (517,748 miles—more than twice the distance from the Earth to the Moon) with respect to Venus at an average speed of 9.13 kilometers per second (5.67 miles per second).

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington


Source: JHUAPL - MESSENGER - Picures
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MESSENGER Mission News

August 3, 2007

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu

Happy Anniversary, MESSENGER!

Today marks the third anniversary of MESSENGER's launch. Since its August 3, 2004, liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., the probe has traveled nearly 1.9 billion miles on its circuitous journey from Earth to Mercury. “Anniversaries are important because they remind you of what it has taken to get you to this point,” notes MESSENGER Project Scientist Dr. Ralph McNutt, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md. “We have another successful year of operations under our belt, and everything is looking good. We are now heading into a period of activity that will include preparing for a record-breaking approach to the Sun, a major deep space maneuver on October 17, and a subsequent 48-day superior conjunction period [starting October 25], the longest of the mission.”

First Perihelion Passage

The team will spend a good part of August preparing for the probe’s first passage through perihelion, the closest point in its orbit around the Sun. On August 1, MESSENGER came within 0.5 astronomical units (AU) of the Sun, and by September 1 the probe will be within 0.33 AU to the Sun – that’s 49.67 million kilometers (or 30.86 million miles) away, the closest any three-axis-stabilized spacecraft has ever approached the Sun. Mariner 10, the first spacecraft to explore Mercury, came within 0.47 AU.

To accommodate the extreme temperatures, the spacecraft has begun to tilt its solar arrays away from the Sun to balance the thermal limits of the array against the power generation needs of the spacecraft. “These solar array tilt adjustments will occur about every two to three weeks,” explains APL’s Sean Laughery, of MESSENGER’s power engineering team. “Different values have been selected based on the spacecraft-to-Sun distance. For example, at 0.5 AU, the arrays were titled 50° back from their earlier position facing the Sun. When at 0.33 AU, the arrays will tilt 70° tilt past their Sun-normal position.”

The team is also running tests to ensure that the spacecraft will operate as intended during MESSENGER’s first flyby of Mercury on January 14, 2008. That flyby, along with two subsequent passes of Mercury on October 6, 2008, and September 29, 2009, will allow MESSENGER to image most of the hemisphere that Mariner 10 was not able to view (because it was in darkness during each of the three Mariner 10 flybys), and at higher resolution. MESSENGER will also map nearly the entire planet in color and measure the composition of the surface, atmosphere, and magnetosphere. These data will help the MESSENGER team plan the orbital mission, which begins on March 18, 2011.

“The MESSENGER mission will be nearly eight years in duration when all of the planned observations have been completed,” says Dr. Sean C. Solomon, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, who leads the mission as principal investigator. “At this three-year milestone, we have a healthy spacecraft and an experienced team with three planetary flybys successfully behind us. MESSENGER will be the first spacecraft to visit Mercury in more than 32 years, and our probe and our team are now ready to explore the innermost planet.”

To view MESSENGER’s current position, as well as its full orbital path since launch, go online to http://messenger/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.

Source: JHUAPL - MESSENGER - Status Report

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MESSENGER Mission News

August 31, 2007

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu

MESSENGER TO FEEL THE HEAT DURING FIRST "HOT" PERIAPSIS

Tomorrow, the MESSENGER probe will come within 0.33 AU of the Sun-49.67 million kilometers (or 30.86 million miles). "This is the closest we've approached the Sun during the mission so far," notes MESSENGER's Deputy Project Scientist Brian Anderson of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. "It will give us an opportunity to see how the spacecraft behaves this near the Sun."

Of course, MESSENGER was designed to withstand the heat. Mercury is so close to the Sun that the probe will be exposed to up to 11 times more sunlight than it would in space near Earth. To prevent the intense heat and radiation from having catastrophic consequences, the mission has been planned carefully to ensure that the spacecraft can operate reliably in the harsh environment.

To protect against direct sunlight, the spacecraft's sunshade is pointed toward the Sun at all times so that the instruments are always shaded. The spacecraft's orbit around Mercury has been designed so that its closest approach to the planet will be away from the most Sun-baked region of the surface and so that it spends little time at low altitudes over sunlit areas. This outcome is achieved by an orbit where the periapsis (the closest point to the surface of Mercury and also the part of the orbit where the spacecraft's speed over the planet is the highest) is at a high latitude and the apoapsis (the farthest point of the orbit and also the part of the orbit where the spacecraft's speed is the lowest) is far from the surface of Mercury. In this manner, infrared radiation received by the spacecraft from Mercury's surface can be kept at safe levels.

The MESSENGER team at APL spent a good part of August preparing for this first "hot" periapsis. Solar array feathering began on August 1 as the probe's distance to the Sun continued to decrease. On that day, when the probe was 0.5 AU from the Sun, the arrays were tilted 50° back from their earlier position facing the Sun; on August 15, the tilt of the panels was increased to 65°; and on September 1, the arrays will tilt 70° past their Sun-normal position.

Next up is a Deep Space Maneuver (DSM-2), the second for the mission, on October 18. That course correction event will adjust MESSENGER's orbit in preparation for its January 14, 2008, encounter 200 kilometers (124 miles) above the surface of Mercury. According to MESSENGER Mission Design Lead Engineer Jim McAdams, the vast majority-92 percent-of DSM-2 will slow the spacecraft orbit's closest point to the Sun. "After DSM-2, the time required to complete one orbit of the Sun will be only 4.4 months," McAdams notes.

To view MESSENGER's current position, as well as its full orbital path since launch, go online to http://messenger/whereis/index.php.

Source: JHUAPL - MESSENGER - Status Report

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MESSENGER Mission News

September 12, 2007

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu

MESSENGER Approaches Two Billion Miles!

On September 13, MESSENGER will reach the two billion-mile mark, placing the spacecraft about two-fifths of the way toward its destination to orbit Mercury. “This type of milestone is an impressive measure of how far we’ve traveled,” says MESSENGER Principal Investigator Sean Solomon. “We can’t take our craft into the shop for its two billion-mile check-up, but our experienced team is doing everything we can to ensure that at the end our journey our mission will be accomplished in full.”

Mercury orbits deep within the well of the Sun’s gravity. So, even though the closest planet to the Sun can be as close as 82 million kilometers (51 million miles) from Earth, getting the one-ton MESSENGER probe into orbit around Mercury is an extraordinarily difficult undertaking. The mission depends on the use of compact scientific instruments, lightweight materials, and an innovative trajectory using the gravity of Earth, Venus and Mercury itself to slow and shape the probe’s descent into the inner solar system.

On its 4.9 billion-mile journey to becoming the first spacecraft to orbit the planet Mercury, MESSENGER has flown by Earth once and Venus twice to pick up gravity assists that are propelling it deeper into the inner solar system. Still to come are three flybys of Mercury.

Up next is an October 17 course correction event that will adjust MESSENGER’s orbit in preparation for an encounter on January 14, 2008, that will bring it 200 kilometers (124 miles) above the surface of Mercury. Even though the MESSENGER spacecraft is three and a half years from reaching its final destination, the mission Science Team has been collecting data and sharing it with the larger scientific community. Those plans and results are available online at http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/soc/index.html.

For a complete look at MESSENGER’s journey, visit the Mission Design section of the Web site at http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/the_mission/mission_design.html. To see where MESSENGER is now, visit http://messenger/whereis/index.php.

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Meet One of the Masterminds behind MESSENGER’s Demanding Trajectory

Jim McAdams’ long-time interest in science and math led him to pursue degrees in aeronautical and astronautical engineering. But it was his experience as an intern at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory that ignited his interest in planetary exploration. Find out more about this pivotal member of the MESSENGER team at http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/who_we_are/member_focus.html

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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.

Source: JHUAPL - MESSENGER - Status Report

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MESSENGER Mission News

September 27, 2007

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu

MESSENGER Team Wraps Up Radio Science Test

MESSENGER’s Radio Science (RS) team recently completed a month-long orbit simulation test to measure Doppler performance using the probe’s low-gain radio frequency (RF) antennas. The test was conducted in an environment similar to one MESSENGER will encounter during its Mercury orbit phase in 2011-12.

The Radio Science team will use MESSENGER’s RF and telecommunications systems to study several aspects of Mercury. The frequency of MESSENGER’s radio signal, as received by the Deep Space Network (DSN) ground stations, depends on the velocity of the spacecraft as seen from Earth. The large, powerful DSN antennas in California, Spain, and Australia are operated by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“By monitoring small changes in radio frequency, we can determine the velocity and acceleration of the MESSENGER spacecraft,” explains Radio Science Instrument Scientist Mark Perry of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., adding that the frequency changes are called Doppler shifts. “Measuring the very slight changes in MESSENGER’s velocity allows us to derive variations in Mercury’s gravity with great precision. The gravity field then tells us how mass is distributed on and within Mercury, particularly variations in the thickness of the crust, the deep structure of such features as craters and mountains, and even the size of the planet’s core.”

During the orbit simulation test — conducted from August 20 to September 19 — MESSENGER’s trajectory carried it nearly along the path of Mercury’s orbit. On 10 separate occasions the team assessed the quality of Doppler observations by collecting an hour of tracking data using the low-gain antennas.

“This campaign has given us hard data on the performance of MESSENGER and the DSN ground system in the configuration that they will have during the orbital phase of the mission,” says Perry. The team also hopes to see how variations in solar activity affect the Doppler measurements. The radio science team will use the data collected to refine MESSENGER’s orbital operations plans.

RS Experiments to Reveal Mysteries of Mercury’s Interior

One of the highest-level science goals for MESSENGER is to elucidate the structure of Mercury’s deep interior. A major surprise from the first Mariner 10 flyby of Mercury in 1974 was that Mercury has an internal magnetic field, which may indicate that the planet has a liquid outer core. At that time, theories for planetary evolution predicted that Mercury’s core would be frozen solid.

Earth-based radar measurements recently detected a variation in Mercury’s spin rate over the planet’s 88-day year. The amplitude of that variation, according to a theory worked out more than 30 years ago by MESSENGER Co-Investigator Stanton Peale, provides strong evidence that at least the outer part of Mercury’s core is molten.

“MESSENGER’s Radio Science investigation will measure the gravity field of Mercury and, in conjunction with other data, is expected to answer major questions about the size of Mercury’s core, the extent to which the core is molten, and how the core is coupled to the overlying mantle, which in turn will help in understanding the thermal evolution of the planet,” says David Smith, a planetary geodesist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and a MESSENGER Co-Investigator.

Radio Science Cruise-Phase Calibrations

Throughout MESSENGER’s cruise phase, the team has calibrated the radio frequency system to achieve the most accurate velocity measurements. Perry says that part of this calibration is to determine how much the Doppler frequency shifts are affected by the solar wind.

Because Mercury is so close to the Sun, this determination is more important for MESSENGER than for most missions. “A second part of the calibration is to verify that we can measure accurate Doppler shifts, even when using MESSENGER’s small low-gain antennas,” Perry explains. “We also tested our analysis techniques by extracting the shape of Venus’s gravity field using the data from the second Venus flyby.”

Mercury Flyby Operations

During MESSENGER’s first flyby of Mercury on January 14, 2008, and the two subsequent passes of Mercury on October 6, 2008, and September 29, 2009, the Radio Science team will use the Doppler shifts to get an early read on Mercury’s gravity field.

“MESSENGER’s radio frequency system and the upgraded DSN antennas enable an accuracy 10 to 100 times better than obtainable from Mariner 10,” Perry notes. “Our first glimpse of the shape of Mercury’s gravity field next January may improve considerably our determination of the character of Mercury’s core, achieving important science three years before MESSENGER’s primary orbit phase begins!”

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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.

Source: JHUAPL - MESSENGER - Status Report

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MESSENGER Mission News

October 17, 2007

_http://messenger.jhuapl.edu

Critical Deep-Space Maneuver Targets MESSENGER for Its First Mercury Encounter

The MESSENGER spacecraft delivered a critical deep-space maneuver on Wednesday — 155 million miles (250 million kilometers) from Earth — successfully firing its large bi-propellant engine to change the probe’s trajectory and target it for its first flyby of Mercury on January 14, 2008.

“Completing this maneuver was a huge milestone for the mission,” offered MESSENGER Principal Investigator Sean Solomon. “We are now en route to the closest glimpse of Mercury that anyone has ever seen. Over the next three months the suspense about what we will find will steadily build.”

The maneuver was executed in two parts from the MESSENGER Mission Operations Center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md. At 6 p.m. EDT on October 17, the probe fired its large main engine for just over five minutes, using about 70 kilograms (154 pounds) of propellant to change its velocity by 226 meters per seconds, or just over 505 miles per hour.

Then, at 6:30 p.m. EDT, the small thrusters were fired for about two minutes, changing the probe’s velocity by an additional 1.4 meters per second. This burn redistributed the propellant in the main tanks to manage location of the probe’s center of mass, putting the spacecraft in a more stable mode of operation. “This action lowers the risk of having to do momentum correction maneuvers during November, when interference from the Sun will prevent communication with the spacecraft,” explained APL’s Jim McAdams, who helped design this maneuver.

“Everything went as planned, and we are now on target for a flyby of Mercury in January 2008,” said Mission Operations Manager Andy Calloway of APL, adding that this maneuver was the most critical of the mission other than orbit insertion, primarily because of the timing. ”Deep-Space Maneuver-2 (DSM-2) was executed just nine days prior to the start of the longest solar conjunction communications outage period of the mission,” he said. “So there was limited opportunity to correct problems and to obtain good orbit determination data for the navigation team.”

“The MESSENGER team is breathing a lot easier now that we’ve seen the successful completion of this most important course-correction maneuver before Mercury orbit insertion,” McAdams said. “Not only did DSM-2 put MESSENGER on target for the first spacecraft encounter with Mercury in nearly 33 years, it was completed with the least margin for error of all five DSMs before Mercury arrival in March 2011.”

This was the second of five deep-space maneuvers that will help the spacecraft reach Mercury orbit. The first, on December 12, 2005, positioned the probe for its October 2006 flyby of Venus. DSM-3 on March 17, 2008, will position the probe for the second flyby of Mercury on October 6, 2008. DSM-4 on December 6, 2008, positions MESSENGER for Mercury flyby 3, scheduled for September 30, 2009. And the final deep-space maneuver on November 29, 2009, targets the probe for Mercury orbit insertion on March 18, 2011.

“Now that we are past DSM-2, we will complete our solar conjunction preparations and begin testing our final version of the Mercury encounter sequence,” Calloway said. “Once we exit the solar conjunction, we will finalize plans for the two December trajectory-correction maneuvers — TCM-19 and TCM-20 — as we correct any propagated errors from DSM-2 so we can put MESSENGER right on the flyby aim point. It has been over three years of densely-packed cruise operations, and we are finally about to fly by and begin collecting data at Mercury.”

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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.

Source: JHUAPL - MESSENGER - Status Report

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MESSENGER Mission News

October 30, 2007

_http://messenger.jhuapl.edu

Sun Cuts into MESSENGER’s Dance Around the Solar System

ESSENGER entered solar conjunction on October 26, when the spacecraft’s trajectory moved it behind the Sun and out of clear view from Earth for several weeks. The team has just a limited time left before the Sun’s interference with the probe’s radio transmission severely limits communication with mission operations at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.

“We expect we’ll be able to communicate with MESSENGER for about another week or two before we completely lose contact,” says APL’s Andy Calloway, the mission operations manager.

Although this is the longest solar conjunction of the mission – 47 days – it’s not the first. The previous solar conjunction period began October 17, 2006 (just before the first Venus flyby on October 24, 2006), and lasted about a month, including about two weeks with no communications at all. “We learned a lot from that first solar conjunction,” Calloway says. “Our planning for this solar conjunction is based, in part, on our experience with that event.”

Prior to a deep-space maneuver this past October 17, engineers began shutting down the instruments, with the exception of the Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (GRS) sensor on the Gamma-Ray and Neutron Spectrometer (GRNS) instrument. The GRS has been left on but placed in a “sleep mode” that allows it to maintain a safe temperature without help from mission operators on Earth.

Operators also programmed MESSENGER’s onboard computer to go 54 days without receiving a command from Earth. Typically, MESSENGER’s autonomy system will put the spacecraft into a safe state if it goes a week without successfully receiving a command from home. This week, the team transmitted a series of commands that will carry MESSENGER through its basic operations until mid-December.

The extra-long upload also includes commands to rotate MESSENGER on roughly a daily basis during the solar conjunction. “The guidance and control team developed an effective strategy to rotate the spacecraft each day to keep the spacecraft’s momentum from building up too quickly because of the combined effects of all the natural torques a spacecraft experiences,” Calloway says.

MESSENGER’s navigation team has asked operations to conduct a series of tracking observations called delta differential one-way ranging or DDOR (pronounced "Delta Door"). These measurements have been used effectively on the project since the first Venus encounter, and they improve spacecraft navigation accuracy in a direction not observable with ranging and Doppler observations alone. The technique uses distant celestial objects known as quasars for reference points. The quasars, along with the separation of two DSN complexes and highly accurate clocks, combine to determine the angular position of the spacecraft in the plane of the sky.

“DDOR is a supplement to the Doppler and ranging data that the navigation team normally uses and helps them shrink their error ellipse so that they know much more precisely where MESSENGER is in space,” Calloway says. “We would like to execute trajectory correction maneuver 19 soon after coming out of conjunction on December19, so we have included many DDOR observations so that if the Sun remains quiescent we can use those data to plan and execute the maneuver.”

The operations team will also use the conjunction period to test the final encounter sequence for the January 14 Mercury flyby on ground simulators and review contingency plans and simulations so the team is prepared for any outcome at the end of the conjunction period. This is important because the team has three opportunities in December and two opportunities in January to execute the next trajectory correction maneuvers as MESSENGER’s final approach to Mercury is fine-tuned.

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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.

Source: JHUAPL - MESSENGER - Status Report

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MESSENGER Mission News

November 16, 2007

_http://messenger.jhuapl.edu

NASA Selects 23 Participating Scientists for MESSENGER Mission to Mercury

NASA has selected 23 scientists for participation in the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) Mission. MESSENGER is on course to fly within 200 kilometers of Mercury on January 14, 2008 — the first probe to pass by the planet in nearly 33 years — and these Participating Scientists, along with the mission’s existing team of engineers and scientists, will play critical roles in examining the images and data gathered during before, during, and immediately following that flyby.

“The breadth, scope, and creativity of the scientists selected is very encouraging,” said Marilyn Lindstrom, NASA Program Scientist for the MESSENGER mission. “By directly participating in NASA’s next mission to Mercury, these scientists will help bring us closer to the long-term objective of better understanding the innermost planet.”

MESSENGER is the seventh mission in NASA’s Discovery Program. The MESSENGER mission, spacecraft, and science instruments are focused on answering six key questions that will allow us to understand Mercury as a planet: Why is Mercury so dense? What is the geologic history of Mercury? What is the structure of Mercury’s core? What is the nature of Mercury’s magnetic field? What are the unusual materials at Mercury’s poles? What volatiles are important at Mercury?

Each selected scientist will conduct science investigations addressing the broad science goals of the mission that can be addressed with the MESSENGER science payload. They will also join one or more of the MESSENGER discipline groups as new MESSENGER Science Team members.

The existing 23-member MESSENGER Science Team is divided into four Discipline Groups — Geochemistry, Geology, Geophysics, and Atmosphere and Magnetosphere — with each Co-Investigator responsible for implementation of a particular part of the mission’s science plan. The newly selected Participating Scientists are:

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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.

Source: JHUAPL - MESSENGER - Status Report

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looks like mercury is moon to me.. dried up and full of craters.

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looks like mercury is moon to me.. dried up and full of craters.

That could be a description of most of the rocky bodies in the solar system.

Real science, however, isn't done by having a quick look and then going straight to conclusions. It involves thorough measurement and examination. This is what MESSENGER is intended to do for Mercury.

Mercury has only been visited once, by Mariner 10 way back in 1974. Very little is known about it. Despite the superficially similar appearances it is likely to have significantly different origins and therefore geology to the Moon. The moon is believed to have resulted from a collision between a body the size of Mars and the proto-earth. Mercury is believed to have formed in the same way as the other planets. MESSENGER will reveal a lot about this planet in the coming years. Understanding the composition of Mercury will help the scientific community understand more about the formation of our solar system.

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MESSENGER Mission News

November 19, 2007

_http://messenger.jhuapl.edu

MESSENGER Completes Fifty Percent of Cruise Phase

On November 25, MESSENGER will have reached the halfway point in its 6.6-year cruise phase, as measured by travel time. In late January 2008 – shortly after its first flyby of Mercury – the probe’s cruise speed (relative to the Sun) will reach its highest since launch: 62.5 kilometers per second (or 140,000 miles per hour).

Highlights of the first three years, three months of the mission include a flyby of Earth one year after launch and two passes by Venus in October 2006 and June 2007. During the second half of its journey, MESSENGER and its team of scientists and engineers will be even busier.

On January 14, 2008, MESSENGER will fly within 200 kilometers of the surface of Mercury and will be the first spacecraft to pass the planet since Mariner 10 flew by in 1974 and 1975. This first flyby promises to reveal new discoveries. MESSENGER’s instruments will begin to make progress on the mission goals to:

  • Map the elemental and mineralogical composition of Mercury's surface;
  • Image globally the surface at a resolution of hundreds of meters or better;
  • Determine the structure of the planet's magnetic field;
  • Measure the planet’s gravitational field structure; and
  • Characterize exosphere neutrals and accelerated magnetosphere ions.

This flyby event, along with two additional passes by Mercury and three deep space maneuvers, will slow the spacecraft sufficiently for Mercury orbit injection on March 18, 2011.

“The halfway point for MESSENGER’s cruise phase is more than a statistical milestone, because in less than two months we’ll have our first close-up view of Mercury,” offers MESSENGER Principal Investigator Sean Solomon. “From then until the end of the mission, we’ll be peeling back Mercury’s mysteries, many of which have perplexed the planetary science community for more than three decades.”

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STAT CORNER

MESSENGER is about 68.5 million miles (110.3 million kilometers) from the Sun and 160.4 million miles (258.1 million kilometers) from Earth. At that distance, a signal from Earth reaches the spacecraft in 14 minutes and 21 seconds. The spacecraft is moving around the Sun at 61,161 miles (98,429 kilometers) per hour.

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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.

Source: JHUAPL - MESSENGER - Status Report

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MESSENGER Mission News

December 3, 2007

_http://messenger.jhuapl.edu

MESSENGER Exits Longest Solar Conjunction Period of Mission

On Friday, November 30, the MESSENGER team resumed daily contact with its Mercury-bound spacecraft. Engineers had suspended their contact schedule on November 13 as the Sun-Earth-Probe angle passed below 1° — entering a period known as solar conjunction, when the spacecraft’s trajectory moved it to the opposite side of the Sun from Earth and out of radio contact with NASA’s Deep Space Network for several weeks.

“Almost immediately after the start of this first tracking period, we were able to get a radio fix on and begin receiving telemetry from the spacecraft,” says MESSENGER Mission Systems Engineer Eric Finnegan. “A review of these early data indicates that the spacecraft is healthy and has operated nominally during the previous two weeks of communications outage.”

After verifying the condition of the spacecraft, the operations team at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., began sending commands to the spacecraft. “Intermittent contact with the spacecraft may still occur because of the potential for increased solar activity,” Finnegan says, “but the communication link reliability will continue to increase in the coming days.”

The spacecraft will officially exit the longest solar conjunction period of the mission on December 12 when the Sun-Earth-probe angle increases above 3°. “This positive contact with the spacecraft places one more critical event for the MESSENGER team in the past,” Mission Operations Manager Andy Calloway says. “We are now planning for a trajectory correction maneuver in late December that will keep the spacecraft on target for the first Mercury flyby of the mission and the first encounter with the planet by any spacecraft in nearly 33 years.”

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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.

Source: JHUAPL - MESSENGER - Status Report

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  • 3 weeks later...

MESSENGER Mission News

December 19, 2007

_http://messenger.jhuapl.edu

MESSENGER ZEROS IN ON MERCURY

MESSENGER’s nineteenth trajectory-correction maneuver (TCM-19) completed on December 19 lasted 110 seconds and adjusted the spacecraft's velocity by 1.1 meters per second (3.6 feet per second). The movement targeted the spacecraft close to the intended aim point 200 km (124 miles) above the night-side surface of Mercury for the probe's first flyby of that planet on January 14, 2008.

The maneuver started at 5:00 p.m. EDT. Mission controllers at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., verified the start of TCM-19 about 13 minutes later, after the first signals indicating thruster activity reached NASA's Deep Space Network tracking station outside Canberra, Australia.

“The MESSENGER spacecraft’s TCM-19 is one in a series of potential course correction opportunities planned in advance of the first Mercury flyby,” explained APL’s Eric Finnegan, MESSENGER’s Mission Systems Engineer. “TCM-19 corrected small deviations in the trajectory remaining after the successful execution of the deep-space maneuver on October 18.”

“We’re now set for our flyby,” added MESSENGER Principal Investigator Sean Solomon. “Achieving our aim point not only will give us our first close-up view of Mercury in nearly 33 years; it will ensure that we continue on the trajectory needed to place, for the first time, a spacecraft into orbit around the innermost planet three years later.”

For graphics of MESSENGER's orientation during the maneuver, visit the “Trajectory Correction Maneuvers” section of the mission Web site at _http://messenger/the_mission/maneuvers.html.

________________________________________

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.

Source: JHUAPL - MESSENGER - Status Report

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MESSENGER Mission News

January 7, 2008

_http://messenger.jhuapl.edu

MESSENGER Only One Week from Mercury

MESSENGER’s mid-December trajectory correction maneuver (TCM-19) went so well that the mission’s design and navigation teams have decided that a TCM scheduled for January 10 will not be needed.

“Cancellation of this maneuver is a demonstration of the near-perfect execution of TCM-19 just prior to the start of the holiday season,” says Mission Systems Engineer Eric Finnegan of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.

On January 9, MESSENGER’s Mercury Dual Imaging System cameras will begin gathering pictures of Mercury as the probe zeros in on the planet. “With just one week to go before the flyby, the spacecraft is on target to encounter the planet at an altitude of 202 kilometers,” Finnegan says. “All subsystems and instruments are operating nominally and configured for the start of the flyby sequence, except for the Mercury Laser Altimeter and part of the Gamma-Ray Spectrometer, which we’ll turn on just before the flyby.”

Over the next week, the team will make final flyby preparations and upload the final command sequences for the encounter.

“We are about to visit Mercury for the first time in more than 30 years, and we can’t wait,” says MESSENGER Principal Investigator Sean Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. “In addition to providing the critical gravity assist that will move MESSENGER along its path toward Mercury orbit insertion in March 2011, this flyby will let us see parts of Mercury never before viewed by spacecraft. We’ll be making close-in observations of the composition of Mercury’s surface and atmosphere, and we’ll be probing deeper into the planet’s magnetosphere than we’ve ever been. We expect many surprises.”

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Experience MESSENGER’s Mercury Flyby Virtually

See Mercury through the “eyes” of MESSENGER’s imagers with the Mercury Flyby Visualization Tool, now available at http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/encounters/. This new Web feature offers a unique opportunity to see simulated views of Mercury from MESSENGER’s perspective, during approach, flyby, and departure, or in real-time (as the observations actually occur).

This tool combines the best available image map of Mercury’s surface with observation sequences for the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS), Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer (MASCS), and Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA). The map of Mercury’s surface combines Earth-based low-resolution radar images from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico and image mosaics from the Mariner 10 spacecraft flybys of Mercury in 1974 and 1975.

There are many helpful tips available on the pages of this visualization tool. Pointing and clicking on any color bar will either reveal the projection of each completed image mosaic on Mercury or show the end of the active MLA or MASCS observation. Information accompanying each simulated image includes the latitude and longitude of the point at the center of each image, the resolution in meters (or kilometers when farther from the planet) per pixel (picture element) at the image center, the altitude (how far the spacecraft is above Mercury's surface), and the time relative to closest approach.

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Upcoming Mercury Flyby 1 Events

  • January 10, 1 p.m. EST. NASA Media Teleconference to preview the flyby.
  • January 14, 7 p.m. EST. APL and The Planetary Society co-host a public lecture in APL’s Parson’s Auditorium featuring University of Arizona Professor Emeritus Robert Strom, the only MESSENGER Science Team member who also participated in the Mariner 10 investigation of Mercury. RSVP online at _http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/RSVP/.
  • January 30, 1 p.m. EST. NASA Space Science Update on the Mercury flyby. NASA Headquarters
.

Details on all these events will be posted as they become available on the MESSENGER Mercury Flyby 1 Web site at _http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/mer_flyby1.html.

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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.

Source: JHUAPL - MESSENGER - Status Report

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MESSENGER Mission News

January 8, 2008

_http://messenger.jhuapl.edu

Six Days from Mercury and Counting!

The MESSENGER spacecraft continues to approach Mercury and will be less than 3 million kilometers (1.9 million miles) away from the planet at the end of today. In just six days – on January 14, 2008, at 2:04 p.m. EST – the probe will pass a mere 200 kilometers (124 miles) above Mercury’s surface. Extensive scientific observations are planned during this historic flyby, the first spacecraft flyby of Mercury in more than 30 years.

Mission operators at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., recently sent MESSENGER a series of commands to acquire nine sets of optical navigation images at the planet Mercury. “This technique was tested and validated after MESSENGER’s second flyby of Venus in June 2007,” explained MESSENGER Mission Operations Manager Andy Calloway. “The Mercury Dual Imaging System camera will be used to further refine knowledge of the spacecraft trajectory by taking a sequence of Mercury limb images that include known bright stars in the camera’s field of view as the spacecraft approaches Mercury.”

MESSENGER Principal Investigator Sean Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington discussed the importance of the historic flyby during a Planetary Radio show aired on January 7. “I was a very junior assistant professor at MIT back when Mariner 10 flew by Mercury three times in 1974 and 1975,” Dr. Solomon told host Mat Kaplan. “It made some important discoveries that raised some questions that have been with us for three decades. So to be returning to Mercury – initially with this flyby but ultimately to go into orbit – with a modern suite of instruments to answer those three-decade-old questions has all of us at the edge of our seats.” The entire interview is available online at _http://www.planetary.org/radio/show/00000270/.

To celebrate MESSENGER's first flyby of the planet Mercury, APL and the Planetary Society will host a public reception on the evening of the encounter. The event will be held in APL’s Parsons Auditorium from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. The featured speaker is Robert G. Strom, a professor emeritus of lunar and planetary studies at The University of Arizona. Strom was involved in the Mariner 10 mission, the first and only previous mission to Mercury, and he is now a member of the MESSENGER Science Team. He'll share his unique perspective on the significance of the MESSENGER mission. Find out more about Professor Strom through this previously featured story: _http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/who_we_are/member_focus_062006.html. RSVPs for the public reception are being accepted at _http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/RSVP/.

Anyone near a computer during MESSENGER's flyby encounter can watch the planned observations unfold with simulated views of Mercury as seen via MESSENGER's two cameras by accessing the Mercury Flyby Visualization Tool, available at _http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/encounters/.

As the flyby continues to approach, additional information and features will be available online at _http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/mer_flyby1.html. Following the flyby, be sure to check back frequently to see the latest released images and science results!

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Stat Corner

MESSENGER is about 37.7 million miles (60.6 million kilometers) from the Sun and 121 million miles (194 million kilometers) from Earth. At that distance, a signal from Earth takes 10 minutes and 47 seconds to reach the spacecraft.

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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.

Source: JHUAPL - MESSENGER - Status Report

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MESSENGER Mission News

January 9, 2008

_http://messenger.jhuapl.edu

MESSENGER Team Receives First Optical Navigation Images

MESSENGER mission operators at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., have received the first eight optical navigation images from the spacecraft. “We’re going to be taking these images every day, up until just before the flyby, to make sure that we are on target for our aim point above the surface of Mercury,” said Louise Prockter of APL, the instrument scientist for the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS).

Optical navigation is commonly used to tie the position of a spacecraft to the position of a target body to ensure a safe and well-positioned flyby. Because MESSENGER will fly very close to the surface of Mercury during the January 14 flyby, optical navigation is used to provide an independent method for finding and correcting subtle errors in the trajectory. “This information will enable the navigation team to verify that the spacecraft is in the correct position for the flyby, or whether a last-minute maneuver will be needed to avoid either coming too close to the planet or missing it by so much that a large amount of fuel would be needed to return the probe to its optimum trajectory,” Prockter noted.

To determine the position of the spacecraft, it is necessary to see the target body – in this case, Mercury – in the same field of view as the background star field, using MDIS. “The stars are far away, so their positions may be assumed to be fixed in space,” Prockter said. “The position of Mercury along its orbit is also well known from hundreds of years of ground-based telescopic observations. Thus, by comparing where Mercury is in the field of view to the stars visible behind it, and by controlling where the camera is pointing, we can estimate the position of the spacecraft.”

The MDIS instrument consists of two imagers, a Wide Angle Camera (WAC) with a 10.5º field of view, and a Narrow Angle Camera (NAC), with a 1.5º field of view. These imagers are always pointed at the same place, and the NAC footprint falls in the center of the WAC footprint. The WAC has a filter specially designed for imaging stars, most of which are so faint that long (up to 10-second) exposures are required.

“Unfortunately, such long exposures tend to saturate bright objects, such as Mercury, making it difficult to image both the planet and the stars in the same WAC image,” Prockter said. “The NAC is not sensitive enough to see stars, but it has a resolution ~7 times better than the WAC and is excellent for imaging the planet limb.”

To carry out optical navigation with MESSENGER, the team uses a combination of the two imagers, taking a star image with the WAC, then quickly switching to the NAC and taking an image of the planet limb. Because the images are taken within seconds of each other, they can be used to see where the planet is compared with the star field.

“The navigation team has obtained practice optical navigation images on previous flybys of Earth and Venus, but the Mercury encounter is the first time we have used this method ‘for real’ to determine the position of the MESSENGER spacecraft,” Prockter said.

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NASA Teleconference to Preview MESSENGER's Flyby of Mercury

NASA will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EST on Thursday, January 10, to preview MESSENGER’s historic January 14 flight past Mercury. The briefing participants are:

  • Marilyn Lindstrom, MESSENGER program scientist, NASA Headquarters, Washington
  • Sean Solomon, MESSENGER principal investigator, Carnegie Institution of Washington
  • Eric Finnegan, MESSENGER mission systems engineer, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.
  • Faith Vilas, MESSENGER participating scientist and director, MMT Observatory at Mt. Hopkins, Ariz.

To participate in the teleconference, reporters should call 1-888-398-6118 and use the pass code "Mercury." International journalists should call 1-210-234-0013. Audio of the teleconference also will be streamed live at: _http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

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As the flyby continues toward closest approach, additional information and features will be available online at _http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/mer_flyby1.html, so check back frequently. Following the flyby, be sure to check back to see the latest released images and science results!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

Source: JHUAPL - MESSENGER - Status Report

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NASA Spacecraft to Make Historic Flyby of Mercury

01.10.08

On Monday, Jan. 14, a pioneering NASA spacecraft will be the first to visit Mercury in almost 33 years when it soars over the planet to explore and snap close-up images of never-before-seen terrain. These findings could open new theories and answer old questions in the study of the solar system.

linked-image

Messenger's approach to Mercury is chronicled in

this image taken by the Wide Angle Camera

on Messenger.

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL

The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging spacecraft, called MESSENGER, is the first mission sent to orbit the planet closest to our sun. Before that orbit begins in 2011, the probe will make three flights past the small planet, skimming as close as 124 miles above Mercury's cratered, rocky surface. MESSENGER's cameras and other sophisticated, high-technology instruments will collect more than 1,200 images and make other observations during this approach, encounter and departure. It will make the first up-close measurements since Mariner 10 spacecraft's third and final flyby on March 16, 1975. When Mariner 10 flew by Mercury in the mid-1970s, it surveyed only one hemisphere.

linked-image

This color composite image produced from Mariner

10 data reveals evidence that different terrains on

Mercury have different compositions.

Image courtesy of M. S. Robinson (Robinson and

Lucey, Science, 1997).

"This is raw scientific exploration and the suspense is building by the day," said Alan Stern, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. "What will MESSENGER see? Monday will tell the tale."

This encounter will provide a critical gravity assist needed to keep the spacecraft on track for its March 2011 orbit insertion, beginning an unprecedented yearlong study of Mercury. The flyby also will gather essential data for mission planning.

"During this flyby we will begin to image the hemisphere that has never been seen by a spacecraft and Mercury at resolutions better than those acquired by Mariner 10," said Sean C. Solomon, MESSENGER principal investigator, Carnegie Institution of Washington. "Images will be in a number of different color filters so that we can start to get an idea of the composition of the surface."

One site of great interest is the Caloris basin, an impact crater about 800 miles in diameter, which is one of the largest impact basins in the solar system.

"Caloris is huge, about a quarter of the diameter of Mercury, with rings of mountains within it that are up to two miles high," said Louise Prockter, the instrument scientist for the Mercury Dual Imaging System at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel. "Mariner 10 saw a little less than half of the basin. During this first flyby, we will image the other side."

linked-image

Artist's concept of the Messenger flyby of Mercury.

Credit: JHUAPL

MESSENGER's instruments will provide the first spacecraft measurements of the mineralogical and chemical composition of Mercury's surface. It also will study the global magnetic field and improve our knowledge of the gravity field from the Mariner 10 flyby. The long-wavelength components of the gravity field provide key information about the planet's internal structure, particularly the size of Mercury's core.

The flyby will provide an opportunity to examine Mercury's environment in unique ways, not possible once the spacecraft begins orbiting the planet. The flyby also will map Mercury's tenuous atmosphere with ultraviolet observations and document the energetic particle and plasma of Mercury's magnetosphere. In addition, the flyby trajectory will enable unique particle and plasma measurements of the magnetic tail that sweeps behind Mercury.

Launched Aug. 3, 2004, MESSENGER is slightly more than halfway through its 4.9-billion mile journey. It already has flown past Earth once and Venus twice. The spacecraft will use the pull of Mercury's gravity during this month's pass and others in October 2008 and September 2009 to guide it progressively closer to the planet's orbit. Insertion will be accomplished with a fourth Mercury encounter in 2011.

The MESSENGER project is the seventh in NASA's Discovery Program of low-cost, scientifically focused space missions. The Applied Physics Laboratory designed, built and operates the spacecraft and manages the mission for NASA.

>Mercury Flyby Visualization Tool

Paulette Brown

Johns Hopkins Applied Physica Lab

Source: NASA - MESSENGER - Multimedia

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MESSENGER Mission News

January 10, 2008

_http://messenger.jhuapl.edu

MESSENGER Set for Historic Mercury Flyby

NASA will return to Mercury for the first time in almost 33 years on January 14, 2008, when the MESSENGER spacecraft makes its first flyby of the Sun’s closest neighbor, capturing images of large portions of the planet never before seen. The probe will make its closest approach to Mercury at 2:04 p.m. EST that day, skimming 200 kilometers (124 miles) above its surface. This encounter will provide a critical gravity assist needed to keep the spacecraft on track for its 2011 orbit insertion around Mercury.

“The MESSENGER Science Team is extremely excited about this flyby,” says Dr. Sean C. Solomon, MESSENGER principal investigator, from the Carnegie Institution of Washington. “ We are about to enjoy our first close-up view of Mercury in more than three decades, and a successful gravity assist will ensure that MESSENGER remains on the trajectory needed to place it into orbit around the innermost planet for the first time.”

During the flyby, the probe’s instruments will make the first up-close measurements of the planet since Mariner 10’s third and final flyby of Mercury on March 16, 1975, and will gather data essential to planning the MESSENGER mission’s orbital phase. MESSENGER’s seven scientific instruments will begin to address the mission goals of:

  • mapping the elemental and mineralogical composition of Mercury’s surface;
  • imaging globally the surface at a resolution of hundreds of meters or better;
  • determining the structure of the planet’s magnetic field;
  • measuring the planet’s gravitational field structure; and
  • characterizing exospheric neutral particles and magnetospheric ions and electrons.

A Close-up of Mercury

The cameras onboard MESSENGER will take more than 1,200 images of Mercury from approach through encounter and departure. “When the Mariner 10 spacecraft did its flybys in the mid-1970s, it saw only one hemisphere – a little less than half the planet,” notes Dr. Louise M. Prockter, instrument scientist for the Mercury Dual Imaging System, and a scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md. “During this flyby we will begin to image the hemisphere that has never been seen by a spacecraft and at resolutions that are comparable to or better than those acquired by Mariner 10 and in a number of different color filters so that we can start to get an idea of the composition of the surface.”

One site of great interest is the Caloris basin, an impact feature about 1,300 kilometers (808 miles) in diameter and one of the largest impact basins in the solar system. “Caloris is huge, about a quarter of the diameter of Mercury, with rings of mountains within it that are up to three kilometers high,” says Prockter. “Mariner 10 saw a little less than half of it. During this first flyby, we will image the other side of Caloris. These impact basins act like giant natural drills, pulling up material from underneath the surface and spreading it out around the crater. By looking through different color filters we can start to understand what the composition of the Caloris basin may be and learn something about the subsurface of Mercury.”

MESSENGER instruments will provide the first spacecraft measurements of the mineralogical and chemical composition of Mercury’s surface. The visible-near infrared and ultraviolet-visible spectrometers will measure surface reflectance spectra that will reveal important mineral species. Gamma-ray, X-ray, and neutron spectrometer measurements will provide insight into elemental composition.

During the flyby, Doppler measurements will provide the first glimpse of Mercury’s gravity field structure since Mariner 10. The long-wavelength components of the gravity field will yield key information on the planet’s internal structure, particularly the size of Mercury’s core.

The encounter provides an opportunity to examine Mercury’s environment in ways not possible from orbit because of operational constraints. The flyby will yield low-altitude measurements of Mercury’s magnetic field near the planet’s equator. These observations will complement measurements that will be obtained during the later orbital phase.

The flyby is an opportunity to get a jump start on mapping the exosphere with ultraviolet observations and documenting the energetic particle and plasma population of Mercury’s magnetosphere. In addition, the flyby trajectory enables measurements of the particle and plasma characteristics of Mercury’s magnetotail, which will not be possible from Mercury orbit.

MESSENGER is slightly more than halfway through a 4.9-billion mile (7.9-billion kilometer) journey to Mercury orbit that includes more than 15 trips around the Sun. It has already flown past Earth once (August 2, 2005) and Venus twice (October 24, 2006, and June 5, 2007). Three passes of Mercury, in January 2008, October 2008, and September 2009, will use the pull of the planet’s gravity to guide MESSENGER progressively closer to Mercury’s orbit, so that orbit insertion can be accomplished at the fourth Mercury encounter in March 2011.

“The complexity of this mission, with its numerous flybys and multitude of maneuvers, requires close and constant attention,” says MESSENGER project manager Peter D. Bedini, of APL. “MESSENGER is being driven by a team of extremely talented and dedicated engineers and scientists who are fully engaged and excited by the discoveries before them.”

The MESSENGER project is the seventh in NASA’s Discovery Program of low-cost, scientifically focused space missions. Solomon leads the mission as principal investigator; APL manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and designed, built, and operates the MESSENGER spacecraft. MESSENGER’s science instruments were built by APL; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder; with the support of subcontractors across the United States and Europe. GenCorp Aerojet, Sacramento, Calif., and Composite Optics Inc., San Diego, Calif., respectively, provided MESSENGER’s propulsion system and composite structure.

The MESSENGER Science Team, recently augmented by an impressive array of experts participating in NASA’s MESSENGER Participating Scientist Program, includes 46 scientists from 26 institutions. A complete list can be found at _http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/who_we_are/science_team.html. Additional information about MESSENGER is available on the Web at: http://messenger.jhuapl.edu.

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As the flyby continues toward closest approach, additional information and features will be available online at _http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/mer_flyby1.html, so check back frequently. Following the flyby, be sure to check back to see the latest released images and science results!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

Source: JHUAPL - MESSENGER - Status Report

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MESSENGER Readies for Its Encounter with Mercury

Release Date: Jan 10, 2008

linked-image

On January 9, 2008, the MESSENGER spacecraft snapped one of its first images of Mercury at a distance of about 2.7 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from the planet. The image was acquired with the Narrow Angle Camera, one half of MESSENGER's Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) instrument. Mercury is about 4880 kilometers (3030 miles) in diameter, and this image has a resolution of about 70 kilometers/pixel (43 miles/pixel). The MESSENGER spacecraft is fast approaching Mercury and will pass within 200 kilometers (124 miles) of the surface at 19:04:39 UTC (2:04:39 pm EST) on January 14, 2008. During this close encounter, MESSENGER will gather extensive scientific data about the planet, including measurements of Mercury's magnetic field, observations of Mercury's thin atmosphere, and images of the hemisphere of Mercury that has never before been viewed by a spacecraft.

MESSENGER is only the second spacecraft to visit the planet Mercury; the first was Mariner 10 in 1974. The data from MESSENGER’s first encounter with Mercury will help address key outstanding science questions about this little known planet. The MESSENGER mission will have two additional encounters with Mercury, in October 2008 and September 2009. All three encounters with Mercury provide gravity assists to enable MESSENGER to become the first spacecraft ever to orbit Mercury in March 2011.

Image acquired on January 9, 2008, 11:04 UTC.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

Source: JHUAPL - MESSENGER - Gallery

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MESSENGER Mission News

January 11, 2008

_http://messenger.jhuapl.edu

Three Days to Mercury!

The countdown to the first flyby of Mercury by the MESSENGER spacecraft has begun. Sunday morning, MESSENGER will start recording the evidence of this historic event. At 8 a.m. EST on January 13 – 30 hours before the closest approach to Mercury – the spacecraft will turn its main antennas away from Earth and automatically begin executing the 5,000 on-board stored commands.

“The entire instrumentation suite will be operating during this flyby, taking more than 1,200 images and gathering other scientific observations, filling the on-board data recorder with more than 700 megabytes of history-making measurements, within a period of 55 hours,” said MESSENGER Systems Engineer Eric Finnegan of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md. “Fifty minutes prior to closet approach, signals from the spacecraft will go quiet as MESSENGER passes behind Mercury, out of Earth’s view. Forty-eight minutes later, engineers and scientists on the ground will attempt to witness the gravitational pull of the planet first-hand by re-acquiring the transmitted signal from the spacecraft within minutes of the closet approach point.”

On Tuesday, January 15, at noon EST, 22 hours after the flyby, MESSENGER will take one last look at Mercury before turning back to Earth to start returning the treasures stored on-board. “Complicating this sequence of events is the demanding requirement to conduct all observations by the spacecraft behind the safety of MESSENGER’s sunshade,” Finnegan said. “Conducting this encounter at 30 million miles from the Sun, almost two-thirds closer than the Earth, would have been impossible in the era of Mariner 10. But thanks to advances in material sciences, MESSENGER’s electronics and sensitive instruments can run at room temperature behind the sunshade, while the front surface temperature rises to more than 600° F.”

Notwithstanding the operational and scientific importance of this flyby, MESSENGER is only slightly more than halfway along its six-and-one-half year, 4.9 billion-mile journey between its launch in August 2004 and orbit insertion around Mercury in March 2011. “Over the next 12-month period, the MESSENGER team will engage in the most grueling year of operations since launch, executing two planetary encounters, two deep space maneuvers, and possibly six additional maneuvers – using the smaller thrusters of the on-board propulsion system – to keep the spacecraft on course,” added Finnegan.

The primary goal of this flyby is to obtain a gravity assist from the planet, which will reduce the arrival velocity of the spacecraft for orbit insertion in March 2011. “Slowing the spacecraft by 5,000 miles per hour, MESSENGER’s orbital period around the Sun will be decreased by 11 days, thus setting up a planetary car race with Mercury,” Finnegan said. “Using its internal engine and future gravity assists, the spacecraft, after being lapped by Mercury many times in this race around the Sun, will ultimately match the 88-day orbital period of the innermost planet.”

To facilitate this change in velocity, the spacecraft will speed over the uncharted surface of Mercury at a relative velocity of more than 16,000 miles per hour and pass within 124 miles of the surface, the closest any man-made object has been to this planet. During this close approach, the spacecraft will experience a period of 14 minutes without solar power, where operations will rely only on the spacecraft’s internal batteries.

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New Optical Navigation Image of Mercury Available

MESSENGER continues to speed toward Mercury, preparing for its closest approach to the planet on Monday, January 14, 2008, at 19:04:39 UTC (2:04:39 pm EST). This image was snapped with the Narrow Angle Camera, one half of MESSENGER's Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS), on January 10, 2008, when MESSENGER was less than 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from the planet. Mercury is about 4,880 kilometers (3,030 miles) in diameter, and this image has a resolution of about 50 kilometers/pixel (31 miles/pixel).

As the spacecraft continues toward closest approach, additional information and features will be available online at _http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/mer_flyby1.html, so check back frequently. Following the flyby, be sure to check back to see the latest released images and science results!

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An Ode to MESSENGER’s First Mercury Pass

Stuart Atkinson, a writer and amateur astronomer from the Lake District of England, has written a poem, “The MESSENGER Approaches,” to commemorate MESSENGER’s first flyby of Mercury. Atkins is the author of six children’s astronomy books - with more to be published this year. He is also the secretary of the Cockermouth Astronomical Society, which he founded 10 years ago, and is a regular commentator on BBC Radio Cumbria's Friday evening show.

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Farewell to a Fellow Explorer

The MESSENGER team notes with sadness the passing earlier today of Sir Edmund Hillary, who with Tenzing Norgay climbed to the summit of Mount Everest for the first time in 1953. “We have lost one of the world's great explorers," offers MESSENGER Principal Investigator Sean Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. “But we take some comfort in that fact that we are poised nearly on the eve of exploring huge portions of the surface of one of Earth's neighboring planets that have never before been seen at close range. Clearly the spirit of exploration that Hillary and Norgay epitomized lives on today.”

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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.

Source: JHUAPL - MESSENGER - Status Report

Edited by Waspie_Dwarf
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MESSENGER Closes in on Mercury

Release Date: Jan 11, 2008

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The MESSENGER spacecraft continues to speed toward Mercury, preparing for its closest approach to the planet on Monday, January 14, 2008, at 19:04:39 UTC (2:04:39 pm EST). This image was snapped with the Narrow Angle Camera, one half of MESSENGER's Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS), on January 10, 2008, when MESSENGER was a distance of just less than 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from the planet. Mercury is about 4880 kilometers (3030 miles) in diameter, and this image has a resolution of about 50 kilometers/pixel (31 miles/pixel).

During the flyby on January 14, 2008, extensive scientific observations are planned. Beginning 30 hours prior to the closest encounter, when the spacecraft will pass a mere 200 kilometers (124 miles) above the surface, MDIS will begin to acquire images regularly of Mercury and continue until about 22 hours following the closest approach. MESSENGER will then start to transmit the new data to Earth once all of the scientific measurements are completed. This exciting new data set will be the first spacecraft data returned from Mercury in over 30 years, since the three Mariner 10 flybys in 1974 and 1975.

Image acquired on January 10, 2008, 21:06 UTC.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

Source: JHUAPL - MESSENGER - Gallery

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MESSENGER Mission News

January 12, 2008

_http://messenger.jhuapl.edu

The Calm before Close Approach

If you look at our "Where Is MESSENGER?" page, which displays the spacecraft's trajectory status, you'll see we're right on Mercury's doorstep. MESSENGER's mission design and navigation teams at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., met yesterday to discuss the spacecraft's current trajectory to determine if a last-minute trajectory-correction maneuver would be needed.

The accumulated radiometric tracking data gathered since the last maneuver indicated that MESSENGER's current position is within 13 kilometers of the target aim point for the Mercury flyby, and direct optical measurements of the planet over the last four days are confirming this result. "The consistency of the radiometric and optical measurements of the trajectory ensure that the spacecraft is on target for the encounter," explained MESSENGER Mission Systems Engineer Eric Finnegan of APL. The bottom line? Trajectory-correction maneuver (TCM) 21, scheduled for execution on January 13, is not needed.

"Using these current predictions," Finnegan said, "the spacecraft will fly by the planet within 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) of the target altitude - Bull's Eye!" With just two days to the flyby, MESSENGER is on target to encounter Mercury at an altitude of 203 kilometers (126 miles) at approximately 19:04:39 UTC (2:04 p.m. EST).

"Operations has confirmed that the core Mercury command load sequence was on-board the spacecraft Thursday night, and all subsystems and instruments are operating nominally," Finnegan said. "On Friday night, the Gamma-Ray Spectrometer turned on its cooler in preparation for the flyby, and the Mercury Laser Altimeter was powered up this morning. The spacecraft is now fully configured for the encounter. All systems are 'GO' for flyby!"

The MESSENGER team will assemble in the operations center early Sunday morning to take one last look at the spacecraft before it starts to execute the core command sequence and turn its instrumentation toward Mercury for the first time in the mission. On to history …

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View the Latest Optical Navigation Image of Mercury!

With just two days until MESSENGER's closest pass by Mercury, the Mercury Dual Imaging System is acquiring sets of images twice a day. These images are used for optical navigation, to verify that the spacecraft is on the desired course. The images also provide the first glimpse of Mercury by a spacecraft in more than 30 years, since the Mariner 10 mission in 1974 and 1975, and hint at the exciting images to come in the next week. This image was snapped on January 11, when MESSENGER was at a distance of about 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Mercury. The diameter of Mercury is about 4,880 kilometers (3,030 miles), and this image has a resolution of about 44 kilometers/pixel (27 miles/pixel).

As the spacecraft continues toward closest approach, additional information and features will be available online at http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/mer_flyby1.html, so check back frequently. Following the flyby, be sure to check back to see the latest released images and science results!

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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.

Source: JHUAPL - MESSENGER - Status Report

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MESSENGER Nears Mercury

Release Date: January 12, 2008

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With just two days until MESSENGER's closest pass by Mercury, the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) is acquiring sets of images twice a day. These images are used for optical navigation purposes, to verify that the spacecraft is on the desired course. The images also provide the first glimpse of Mercury by a spacecraft in over 30 years, since the Mariner 10 mission in 1974 and 1975, and hint at the exciting images to come in the next week. This image was snapped on January 11, 2008, when MESSENGER was at a distance of about 1.7 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Mercury. The diameter of Mercury is about 4880 kilometers (3030 miles), and this image has a resolution of about 44 kilometers/pixel (27 miles/pixel).

MESSENGER will pass 200 kilometers (124 miles) above Mercury's surface on Monday, January 14, 2008, at 19:04:39 UTC (2:04:39 pm EST). Extensive scientific observations are planned during this historic flyby, including imaging a large portion of Mercury's surface that has never before been seen by a spacecraft. These data will be used to address fundamental questions about Mercury's formation, evolution, and the history of our solar system.

Image acquired on January 11, 2008, 09:06 UTC.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

Source: JHUAPL - MESSENGER - Gallery

Edited by Waspie_Dwarf
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MESSENGER Mission News

January 13, 2008

_http://messenger.jhuapl.edu

MESSENGER Instruments Take Aim

MESSENGER’s engineering and operations teams convened at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., early this morning to confirm the health and readiness of the spacecraft.

At 7:56 a.m. EST the last bits of data from the spacecraft were received as it transitioned from high-gain downlink to beacon-only operations, turning the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) instrument toward the planet to start the approach color movie sequence. For the next 24 hours or so, the spacecraft will take three color frames of the planet every 20 minutes. When MESSENGER approaches within 39,000 kilometers (24,233.5 miles) of Mercury, the Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer instrument will start interleaving sweeps of the planet’s anti-sunward tail at ultraviolet and visible wavelengths.

“The spacecraft is now on autopilot, executing the more than 5,000-line on-board command sequence and dutifully capturing the data from this historic flyby,” said APL’s Eric Finnegan, the MESSENGER Systems Engineer. “The operations team and the radio science team are now preparing for the post-occultation period, where operators at the Deep Space Network in Goldstone, Calif., will test their skill at capturing the spacecraft's radio signal, just minutes before closet approach with the planet, providing critical measurements for determining the mass distribution within Mercury.” …

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MESSENGER Has Mercury in Its Sights!!

With just one day until MESSENGER's historic flyby of Mercury, MESSENGER has Mercury clearly in its sights. The Narrow Angle Camera, part of the MDIS instrument, took this image on January 12, 2008, when MESSENGER was about 1.2 million kilometers (750,000 miles) away from Mercury. Mercury has a diameter of about 4,880 kilometers (3,030 miles), and this image has a resolution of about 31 kilometers/pixel (19 miles/pixel).

As the spacecraft continues toward closest approach, additional information and features will be available online at http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/mer_flyby1.html, so check back frequently. Following the flyby, be sure to check back to see the latest released images and science results!

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On the Eve

MESSENGER Project Scientist Ralph McNutt, Jr., a member of the MESSENGER team since the mission was first proposed to NASA in 1996, reflects on the significance of the spacecraft's first flight past Mercury.

MESSENGER – in many ways, the little spacecraft that could – will soon make its first flyby of the innermost planet of our solar system. The science team is poised to convert the downlinked data stream of binary bits into the first close-up images of this puzzling world in almost 33 years. Technological advances made over the last three decades, built into a suite of miniaturized electronic instruments, will yield other types of measurements, many of which could not have been made at the time of Mariner 10.

MESSENGER is so nearly perfectly on course that two backup trajectory-correction maneuvers were not needed, and solar pressure from the looming Sun is helping to ease the probe toward threading its final needle – a point in mathematical and physical space at 200 kilometers (124 miles) above Mercury’s rocky surface. Tomorrow’s flyby – whose primary purpose is to continue to slow the spacecraft for eventual propulsive insertion into orbit about Mercury in March 2011 – will allow unprecedented views of about half of the side of the planet not seen by Mariner 10.

In a week’s time, the entire Caloris basin – an impact structure more than 1,300 kilometers (about 800 miles) in diameter – will have been revealed in all its glory. Many other such impact features on Mercury – signatures of the late heavy bombardment of the inner solar system that produced the Imbrium basin on the Moon and the Hellas basin on Mars, among others – may be imaged at close range for the first time.

The flyby observations and their scientific implications should be spectacular. But in an electronic world of special effects and the global village, connected by cell phones and the Internet, mythical exploration can be confused with the real thing. It should not surprise planetary scientists that a public used to seeing Captain Jean-Luc Picard navigating the Enterprise from the Earth past Saturn in less than 10 seconds on a television trailer might be confused that the actual journey to Mercury is such a long one.

Sci-Fi Channel viewers are more likely to be familiar with Stargate Atlantis than with the likes of Admiral Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, Captain Nathaniel Palmer, Captain John Davis, and those who subsequently followed to explore Antarctica. The omnipresence of sophisticated entertainment imparts an ever-increasing need for the technical community to engage their non-technical counterparts not just in education but also simply in continuing conversation.

Driven by the economic bonanza and unfettered national ambitions of the spice trade, the Era of European Exploration yielded widespread new understanding of our planet for the first time. Later explorers sought in vain for northeast and northwest passages, uncovering still more about Earth and its environs. Antarctica had its own heroic age of exploration. Through two world wars, expeditions to these farthest reaches of the Earth were small and privately financed, but the small budgets yielded significant discoveries.

That world changed in 1947 with “Operation Highjump,” the U.S. Naval expedition to Antarctica. New national rivalries fueled explorations of the planet’s last unknown real estate. And then something wonderful happened. A world on the precipice of the Cold War agreed to global scientific cooperation as part of the International Geophysical Year (1957-58), which established the framework for the current era of Antarctic exploration founded on the Antarctic Treaty. At the same time, a new U.S. agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), was formed.

Fifty years later, the explorers have changed, and their horizons have broadened. The national political imperatives have changed as well, but exploration and new discoveries continue. The Cold War and the Space Race have taken humanity to the Moon – for a short time, but surely not the last – yet space exploration has also taught us how to work together in a truly international enterprise. Like the signing of the Antarctic Treaty, this cooperation has been no small feat.

Robotic emissaries now in orbit about Saturn, Mars, Venus, and our Moon have been enabled and are now operated by thousands of engineers, scientists, and space agency staffers from several continents and many nations. The twin Voyager spacecraft are nearing the interstellar void, and New Horizons is en route to the first views of Pluto and other Kuiper Belt objects beyond the orbit of Neptune. Everyone on this planet continues by proxy to feel the push of Robert Browning: “Ah, a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for?”

MESSENGER will soon return images and other observations from regions unseen and of phenomena unsuspected. We scientists will scurry to analyze, quantify, and make sense of it all. Journalists will scamper to report the news, and many citizens will turn avidly to their Web browsers to view the latest findings.

Those are the trees. But there is also a forest. This is exploration and discovery in its most real sense, not some electronic-game designer’s newest effort. The exploration paradigm is shifting, and we can and should all take the new path together. Doing so will not be not easy or cheap. And we must balance our finite resources with the need to preserve what we have here on our own planet. Life always presents us with choices and balances. But the message from MESSENGER and our other far-flung emissaries is that exploring the unknown is part of the best in us all.

No need to beam me up, Scotty. There is intelligent life here.

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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.

Source: JHUAPL - MESSENGER - Status Report

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