Messenger Mercury Fly By #1

[NukeET]

On January 14, 2008, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft will fly by Mercury, passing 200 km above the surface and imaging portions of the planet that Mariner 10 never viewed. PeA at 19:04:39 UTC.



http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/mer_flyby1.html

 

[dougkeenan]

Good! Just itchin' to slap an updated texture on that ball.

 

[Mafuskas]

I was looking at the Wikipedia article on MESSENGER today, and found this part interesting:

The navigation team is lead by KinetX, Inc. of Tempe, AZ. KinetX is the first private company to be responsible for navigation of a NASA deep space mission. In that role, they are responsible for determining all trajectory adjustments throughout the probe's flight through the inner solar system ensuring that MESSENGER arrives at Mercury with the proper velocity for orbit insertion.

I'm glad it seems the private industry knows how to convert between units of measurement, if the success of the mission so far is any evidence.

 

[Andy44]

I don't know how they can say that, I think all of NASA's space vehicles are controlled by provate contractors, including the Space Shuttle (United Space Alliance is the contractor, AFAIK). Unless Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman don't count as private companies...

 

[silent_protagonist]

Well since the main forums are down, I'll continue my space fanboy (spanboy?) activities over here.

First image released from the far side of Mercury:

Okay, so it still basically looks like the moon. No faces, no reptilian cities. Quote form the accompanying text:

Like the previously mapped portion of Mercury, this hemisphere appears heavily cratered. It also reveals some unique and distinctive features. On the upper right is the giant Caloris basin, including its western portions never before seen by spacecraft. Formed by the impact of a large asteroid or comet, Caloris is one of the largest, and perhaps one of the youngest, basins in the Solar System. The new image shows the complete basin interior and reveals that it is brighter than the surrounding regions and may therefore have a different composition. Darker smooth plains completely surround Caloris, and many unusual dark-rimmed craters are observed inside the basin. Several other multi-ringed basins are seen in this image for the first time. Prominent fault scarps (large ridges) lace the newly viewed region.

The Caloris Basin has almost Death Star like proportions (although it isn't nearly as pronounced as Mimas). That's what a 80km/s+ perihelion velocity will get you.:lol:

EDIT: Within five minutes of posting this M6 is back up. Magic fingers...:hotcool:

 

[tblaxland]

I don't know how they can say that, I think all of NASA's space vehicles are controlled by provate contractors, including the Space Shuttle (United Space Alliance is the contractor, AFAIK). Unless Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman don't count as private companies...

I think there are two differences - one, this is a *deep space* mission (that is specifically mentioned in the article); two, I don't believe United Space Alliance is responsible for navigation (not sure on that).

 

[dougkeenan]

Nice! Thanks for the image. It does look like the lunar surface. Give Hoagland a day or two to start finding faces.