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

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