May 5th 1961 Alan B. Shepard - First Man From U.S. In Space

Alan Shepard became the first American in space when the Freedom 7 spacecraft lifted off from Florida on May 5, 1961. Not to be one to set on his laurels, Shepard continued with the program and 12 years later, he become the fifth man to walk on the moon.

Now for the nit pickers out there, yes I know -  sub orbital and ballistic, but give it a rest! After all these years, give the man his due.  When he was taken off active flight status, missing his chance at the first Gemini, he continued on in a planning and advisory position.  After surgery to correct an inner ear problem he ones again gained a seat on Apollo 14.   Yeah, I think he had the right stuff. 

Click HERE for the Space.com article

RIP: Dyer Brainerd Holmes

Dyer Brainerd Holmes, director of NASA's manned spaceflight and crucial  advocate for later Apollo program has died at 91 of complications from pneumonia, said a family member.  

Mr. Holmes only spend a couple of years with NASA.  During that time however,  Holmes oversaw the the formation of the original “Mercury Seven”, which included John Glenn who became the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth,  plus seeing the formation of the follow on projects Gemini and Apollo. 

Holmes abruptly resigned his position in 1963, reportedly because of meddling by NASA administrator James E. Webb.

Read the complete Washington Post article HERE

Messenger completes One Year Mercury mission

From the NASA website and the Messenger Mercury rendezvous spacecraft, via the Daily Galaxy Blog, come a real interesting update.

Here is the release of the current news from Discovery:

• On March 17, 2012, MESSENGER successfully wrapped up a year-long campaign to perform the first complete reconnaissance of the geochemistry, geophysics, geologic history, atmosphere, magnetosphere, and plasma environment of the solar system's innermost planet. The following day, March 18, 2012, marked the official start of an extended phase designed to build upon those discoveries.

First....I can not believe it has been a complete year!  Plus the list of science packages that have been done!

Congrats NASA and Messenger!

Here is the NASA page link

Mysterious Pattern on Mercury?

The NASA Messenger probe is already sending back wonderful pictures of the planet Mercury. But check out this photo....is this going to drive the Martian Face people crazy. From Cory Doctorow's Boing Boing the next "inexplicable" image. From the Article:

• NASA says the X is the result of two separate meteor strikes whose craters are outside the area that can be seen in this photo. When each meteor hit the surface, the force of impact threw off material that left behind its own, smaller, craters when it hit the ground.

Brand New Mercury Photos

From Wired is news that NASA’s Messenger spacecraft transmitted its' first image of the planet Mercury. This photo is noteworthy as it is the first picture ever taken by a space-craft in orbit around Mercury.

According to the article:

• The picture, shows Mercury’s southern hemisphere. The bright crater at the top of the image is called Debussy, and a smaller crater called Matabei lies to Debussy’s west

For more, check the Wired article here

Messenger spacecraft set for Mercury Orbit Insertion

NASA is reporting that Messenger, the first probe ever to orbit the planet Mercury, will move into orbit around Mercury on March 17, 2011. A 14 minute burn of its main engine will slow the craft by 1,929 mph. The maneuver will place the spacecraft into a 12-hour orbit about Mercury with a 124 mile minimum altitude.

It has taken MESSENGER a convoluted trip through the solar system and six years to become the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury and only the second to send back data since the Mariner 10 mission over 30 years ago. Here is a NASA video of the orbital insertion maneuver Messenger will take March 18th.



Thanks to Dan for the update

Mercury and Mars - Leftover Planets.

Adding another wrinkle to the difficult task of categorizing planets, a new computer model suggests that Mercury and Mars were formed from particles ejected during the formation of Earth and Venus.

The computer model by UCLA astronomer Brad Hansen was a result of flaws in the traditional of assumption of an evenly distributed particle disk during planetary formation. One obvious flaw being that this should have resulted in the rocky planets all being essentially the same size. Hansen "proposes that the dust disk fragmented into bands of debris at various distances from the sun—much like the rings of Saturn." In this theory Earth and Venus formed in one large band, hence their similar sizes, while Mercury and Mars were formed mostly from particles ejected from the main band by the gravity of the larger planets.

One good aspect of theory is that it makes predictions that can be tested. This model predicts that "the composition of the solar system's four rocky planets should be strikingly similar" while the standard model predicts that they should vary in accordance with their distance from the sun.

<Read more at National Geographic>

Could Jupiter's Gravity End Life on Earth?

Reading in a recent Daily Galaxy article: Scientists are saying that the planet Mercury could possibly smash into our planet. Jacques Laskar of the Paris Observatory and Gregory Laughlin of the University of California, Santa Cruz reached the same unsettling conclusion using separate computer simulations of long-term planetary motion. Leading them both to conclude that the Solar System is not as stable as once thought.

Specifically, both teams found that Jupiter's gravity could eventually make Mercury's orbit so out of round that it overlaps with the path of Venus.

Their models show that Mercury would be forced into one of four unpleasant scenarios if its orbit were disturbed. Either Mercury will 1: crash into the Sun, 2: be ejected from the solar system altogether 3: crash into Venus or worst case Mercury will crash into Earth.

Such an impact would kill all life on our planet. Nothing would survive. By contrast, the asteroid that doomed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago was likely just 6 miles in diameter; Mercury is 3,032 miles across. The last time an object about that size hit the Earth, the resulting debris formed our Moon.

Even Mars might not be left out of the mix. Most simulations show Mars being pushed into a much colder and farther orbit or ejected as well.

The one saving grace to these scenarios is that the time frame for everything to fall into place in on the order of billions of years, making it more likely that Sol would go well off main sequence and become a red giant before Mercury becomes a problem.

<- more at Sky and Telescope ->

Messenger send home new pics of Mercury!

In preparation for its March 18, 2011 orbital insertion, NASA's Messenger space craft sent back pictures taken of the planet Mercury on its' first fly-by 1/14/08. Messenger will make 3 more close passes of the diminutive planet. The probe's first pass was less that 130 mile above the surface of Mercury and took many photographs of areas that have never been seen before. Mercury was last visited by Mariner 10 which flew by the innermost planet in 1975. MESSENGER is due to make a second rendezvous at Mercury in October, then swing by on third pass in September 2009. The probe will generate complete maps of Mercury's surface, measure the planet's gravitational field and search for any hints of ice at the bottom of permanently shadowed craters near the poles as part of its mission.

More story and pics from Messenger

Pictures from the Mariner 10 flybys

Thanks to Shaun A. Saunders for the post

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

Space Pioneer Wally Schirra Dies At 84

From CBS news

Astronaut Walter M. "Wally" Schirra Jr., one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts and the only man to fly on all three of NASA's early space missions, has died at the age of 84. Schirra, commanded the first rendezvous of two spacecraft in orbit, in 1962. Schirra became the third American to orbit the Earth, circling the globe six times in a flight that lasted more than nine hours. He returned to space three years later as commander of Gemini 6-A and guided his two-man capsule toward Gemini 7, already in orbit. On Dec. 15, 1965, the two ships came within a few feet of each other as they shot through space, some 185 miles above the Earth. It was the first rendezvous of two spacecraft in orbit. His third and final space flight in 1968 inaugurated the Apollo program. For the Apollo 7 mission in October 1968 — which followed the deadly Apollo launch pad fire which killed fellow Mercury teammate Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee — Schirra's crew ran a shakedown cruise, and for eleven days, they tested what was essentially a brand new spacecraft in every possible way. In all, Schirra logged nearly 300 hours in space.

Thanks to Nelson for bringing this to my attention