 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
NASA's Messenger Spacecraft Returns To Mercury
Washington DC (SPX) Oct 02, 2008 A NASA spacecraft will conduct the second of three flybys of Mercury on Oct. 6 to photograph most of its remaining unseen surface and collect science data. The Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging, or MESSENGER, spacecraft will pass 125 miles above the planet's cratered surface, taking more than 1200 pictures. The flyby also will provide a critical gravity assist needed for the probe to become, in March 2011, the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury. "The results from MESSENGER's first flyby of Mercury resolved debates that are more than 30 years old," said Sean C. Solomon, the mission's principal investigator from the Carnegie Institution of Washington. "This second encounter will uncover even more information about the planet." During the spacecraft's first flyby on Jan. 14, its cameras returned images of approximately 20 percent of Mercury's surface never before seen by space probes. Images showed that volcanic eruptions produced many of Mercury's plains, its magnetic field appears to be actively generated in a molten iron core, and the planet has contracted more than previously thought. "This second flyby will show us a completely new area of Mercury's surface, opposite from the side of the planet we saw during the first," said Louise M. Prockter, instrument scientist for the spacecraft's Mercury Dual Imaging System at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, or APL, in Laurel, Md. The second flyby is expected to yield more surprises about the unique physical processes governing Mercury's atmosphere, as well as additional information about the charged particles located in and around Mercury's dynamic magnetic field. An altimeter on the spacecraft will measure the planet's topography, allowing scientists, for the first time, to correlate high-resolution topography measurements with high-resolution images. A major goal of the orbital phase of the mission is to determine the composition of Mercury's surface. Instruments designed to make those measurements will get another peek at Mercury during this flyby. "We will be able to do the first test of differences in the chemical compositions between the two hemispheres viewed in the two flybys," said Ralph McNutt, the mission's project scientist at APL. "Instruments also will provide information about portions of Mercury's surface in unprecedented detail." The spacecraft is more than halfway through a 4.9-billion-mile journey to enter orbit around Mercury that includes more than 15 trips around the sun. In addition to flying by Mercury, the spacecraft flew past Earth in August 2005 and past Venus in October 2006 and June 2007. The project is the seventh in NASA's Discovery Program of low-cost, scientifically focused space missions. The spacecraft was designed and built by APL. The mission also is managed and operated by APL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Related Links MESSENGER News Flash at Mercury Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com Lunar Dreams and more
Mercury's Spider Pantheon Fossae Formation Linked To Asteroid Impact
Munster, Germany (SPX) Sep 24, 2008As NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft prepares for its second flyby of Mercury, new analyses of data from the first flyby will be presented at the European Planetary Science Congress in Munster on Tuesday 23rd September |
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright Space.TV Corporation. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space.TV Corp on any Web page published or hosted by Space.TV Corp. Privacy Statement |
