Updates MESSENGER Mission News

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JHU APL:
MESSENGER Mission News
October 24, 2014
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/


Third of Four Planned Maneuvers Extends MESSENGER Orbital Operations

MESSENGER mission controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., conducted the third of four maneuvers today to raise the spacecraft's minimum altitude sufficiently to extend orbital operations and delay the probe's inevitable impact onto Mercury's surface until early next spring.

The first of the four maneuvers, completed on June 17, raised MESSENGER's altitude at closest approach from 115 kilometers (71.4 miles) to 156.4 kilometers (97.2 miles) above the planet's surface. The second of the four maneuvers, completed on September 12, raised MESSENGER's altitude at closest approach from 25.2 kilometers (15.7 miles) to 93.7 kilometers (58.2 miles) above the planet's surface. Because of progressive changes to the orbit over time, the spacecraft's minimum altitude has continued to decrease since September.

At the time of this most recent maneuver, MESSENGER was in an orbit with an altitude at closest approach of 26 kilometers (16.1 miles) above the surface of Mercury. With a velocity change of 19.37 meters per second (43.33 miles per hour), the spacecraft's four largest monopropellant thrusters (with a small contribution from four of the 12 smallest monopropellant thrusters) nudged the spacecraft to an orbit with a closest approach altitude of 185.2 kilometers (115.1 miles). This maneuver also increased the spacecraft's speed relative to Mercury at the maximum distance from Mercury, adding about 7.4 minutes to the spacecraft's eight-hour, five-minute orbit period.

This view shows MESSENGER's orientation shortly after the start of the maneuver.

MESSENGER was 116.9 million kilometers (72.64 million miles) from Earth when the 2 minute, 29 second maneuver began at 2:58 p.m. EDT. Mission controllers at APL verified the start of the maneuver 6.5 minutes later, after the first signals indicating spacecraft thruster activity reached NASA's Deep Space Network tracking station outside of Goldstone, California.

One more maneuver, on January 21, 2015, will again raise the spacecraft's minimum altitude, allowing the MESSENGER science team to continue to collect images and other data from the spacecraft's instruments.

{...}
 

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http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=269
Innovative use of Pressurant Extends MESSENGER's Mission, Enables Collection of New Data
The MESSENGER spacecraft will soon run literally on fumes. After more than 10 years traveling in space, nearly four of those orbiting Mercury, the spacecraft has expended most of its propellant and was on course to impact the planet's surface at the end of March 2015. But engineers on the team have devised a way to use the pressurization gas in the spacecraft's propulsion system to propel MESSENGER for as long as another month, allowing scientists to collect even more data about the planet closest to the Sun.
 

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Maneuver Successfully Delays MESSENGER's Impact, Extends Orbital Operations
MESSENGER mission controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., successfully conducted a maneuver today designed to raise the spacecraft's minimum altitude sufficiently to extend orbital operations and delay the probe's inevitable impact onto Mercury's surface until early next spring.

The immediately previous maneuver, completed on October 24, 2014, raised MESSENGER to an altitude at closest approach from 25.4 kilometers (15.8 miles) to 184.4 kilometers (114.6 miles) above the planet's surface. Because of progressive changes to the orbit over time, the spacecraft's minimum altitude continued to decrease.

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=271

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MESSENGER Mission News

April 3, 2015

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu




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Planned Maneuver Further Extends MESSENGER Orbital Operations



MESSENGER mission controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., conducted a maneuver yesterday to raise the spacecraft’s minimum altitude sufficiently to extend orbital operations and further delay the probe’s inevitable impact onto Mercury's surface.



The previous maneuver, http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/the_mission/ocm13.html completed on March 18, raised MESSENGER to an altitude at closest approach from 11.6 kilometers (7.2 miles) to 34.4 kilometers (21.4 miles) above the planet’s surface. Because of progressive changes to the orbit over time in response to the gravitational pull of the Sun, the spacecraft’s minimum altitude continued to decrease.



At the time of yesterday’s maneuver, MESSENGER was in an orbit with a closest approach of 5.5 kilometers (3.4 miles) above the surface of Mercury. With a velocity change of 2.96 meters per second (6.63 miles per hour), four of the spacecraft’s 12 smallest monopropellant thrusters nudged the spacecraft to an orbit with a closest approach altitude of 27.5 kilometers (17.1 miles). This maneuver also increased the spacecraft’s speed relative to Mercury at the maximum distance from Mercury, adding about 1.2 minutes to the spacecraft’s eight-hour, 17.6-minute orbit period.



The second orbit-correction maneuver (OCM) in MESSENGER’s low-altitude hover campaign, also called the extension of the second extended mission, OCM-14 is the first propulsive course correction since December 2006 to use the two small thrusters that point sunward from the sunshade center panel. This view http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/the_mission/maneuvers.html shows MESSENGER’s orientation at the start of the maneuver.

MESSENGER was 200.6 million kilometers (124.6 million miles) from Earth when the 6.7-minute maneuver began at about 4:30 p.m. EDT. Mission controllers at APL verified the start of the maneuver 11.2 minutes later, after the first signals indicating spacecraft thruster activity reached NASA’s Deep Space Network tracking station in Goldstone, Calif.

The next maneuver, on April 6, will again raise the spacecraft’s minimum altitude, allowing scientists to continue to collect images and data from MESSENGER’s instruments. The 3.8 days between OCM-14 and OCM-15 will be the shortest time between any two MESSENGER maneuvers.




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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 was launched on August 3, 2004, and entered orbit about Mercury on March 18, 2011 (UTC), to begin its primary mission – a yearlong study of its target planet. MESSENGER’s first extended mission began on March 18, 2012, and ended one year later. MESSENGER is now in a second extended mission, which is scheduled to conclude in April 2015. Sean C. Solomon, the Director of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, 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.


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April 7, 2015

Latest Maneuver Illustrates Critical Role Telecommunications System Plays in Delaying MESSENGER's Mercury Impact

MESSENGER's orbit-correction maneuver on April 6 was a nail biter. It was the 15th such maneuver since the spacecraft entered orbit about Mercury in 2011, and the third in a series of increasingly risky "burns" designed to delay MESSENGER's inevitable impact onto Mercury's surface. Each maneuver illustrates the critical role that the spacecraft's radio frequency (RF) telecommunications system plays in its operation.
 

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NASA Celebrates MESSENGER Mission Prior to Surface Impact of Mercury
NASA's highly successful MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft is coming to the end of its operations. Mission engineers predict that the probe -- out of fuel and under gravity's spell -- will impact Mercury on April 30 at more than 8,750 miles per hour (3.91 kilometers per second).

YEEEhah...:salute:
 

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I hope ESA/JAXA will photograph the impact crater with BepiColombo!

I asked this about the mission via email almost 2 years ago:

[email protected]
5/5/13

Please note that your question raised at the MESSENGER Question and Answer Knowledge Base Website has been answered!

Go to the following link to view the answer to your question
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/qa/index.php?faq=1&ca=36#qn487

The following outlines your Question and Answer

Question:
Has anyone considered what to name the impact crater left by the spacecraft? Have there been any predictions as to the location of this impact point?

Answer:
It is unlikely that a future mission would be able to locate the small crater created by MESSENGER's impact, because it will be below the resolution of most MESSENGER images, and because it will be difficult to exactly predict the location of the impact. See this previous question, and browse the "Orbiting Mercury" section of the Q&A for more about MESSENGER's orbit and what might happen at the end of the mission.

--Dave Blewett, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
MESSENGER Participating Scientist

Regards,
MESSENGER Question and Answer Knowledgebase Administrator

Didn't have any success with the link. All I get is an error.

According to MESSENGER's website, the MDIS narrow angle camera has a resolution of 18m (about 60ft). The only number for BepiColumbo I could find was <10 m/pxl.

I would think that with orbital data for maybe the last 2-3 orbits would be enough to predict an area of impact when fed into a simulation.
 

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MESSENGER Executes Last Orbit-Correction Maneuver, Prepares for Impact

MESSENGER mission controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., conducted the last of six planned maneuvers on April 24 to raise the spacecraft’s minimum altitude sufficiently to extend orbital operations and further delay the probe’s inevitable impact onto Mercury's surface.

With the usable on-board fuel consumed, this maneuver expelled gaseous helium — originally carried to pressurize the fuel, but repurposed as a propellant. Without a means of boosting the spacecraft’s altitude, the tug of the Sun's gravity will draw the craft in to impact the planet on April 30, at about 8,750 miles per hour (3.91 kilometers per second), creating a crater as wide as 52 feet (16 meters).

Now we have some numbers as to crater size. Perhaps BepiColumbo will be able to image the impact crater - despite what Dave Blewett, from Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, says.
 

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So. Mercury is about to become the 12th body to have human artifacts on its surface (or the atomized remains thereof).
 

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Strange, 19:25 UTC altitude was 10.5 k, 19:30 is 48k, has Messenger survived this pass?

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Strange, 19:25 UTC altitude was 10.5 k, 19:30 is 48k, has Messenger survived this pass?

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Maybe its some computer-counted data instead of based on real telemetry of Messenger, maybe Messenger survived and does one/two finally orbits until it crashing later.
 

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Strange, 19:25 UTC altitude was 10.5 k, 19:30 is 48k, has Messenger survived this pass?

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I don't think that those (after 19:25 UTC) are telemetry data, just numerical results of the "current orbit". Those models normally don't account for checking whether the orbits periapsis is below the planets radius.

I think only Philea was able to bounce :lol: (it tried on a rubber-duck anyway)
 

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I think you are right. I would have thought they would discontinue the web page once the data wasn't valid.
I assumed it was real-time telemetry, but thinking about it, that would be a wast of time and bandwidth.

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Does anyone know when AOS would be if it survived?

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I'm looking at http://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html to see if DSN is doing any sorts of telemetry session ...

Right now, DSN at Goldstone is radiating toward MESSENGER ... They must be cheking it's status as of now.:hailprobe:

I'll call it first, but with a round-trip light time of 16.61 minutes, I think it's dead, Jim... It should have answered by now.
 
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