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Messenger Flies by Mercury

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the fun-in-the-sun dept.

Riding with Robots writes "Today, more than three decades after the last spacecraft visited Mercury, Messenger buzzed just 200 kilometers above the planet's surface. During the encounter, the robotic spacecraft conducted a range of scientific observations, including imaging swaths of Mercury's surface that have never been seen up close before. A few of the first pictures are now available, with many more to come in the next few days."

3 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Oops... by dryeo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Actually July and August were just renamed. July was Quintilis before being renamed in honour of Julius and August was Sextilis. The year used to start in March (Spring) so the month numbers were correct at one time.

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    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
  2. Re:Again? by Tom+Rothamel · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That's why they did three slingshot maneuvers to get there. The navigation team at JPL has really outdone themselves with this flight, and are to be commended.


    Interestingly enough, the navigation of this flight was outsourced to Kintex. The mission itself is managed by APL... AFAIK, JPL wasn't particularly involved.
  3. Extremely Close by PhotoGuy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    200km! Wow, that's incredibly close to Mercury. For comparison's sake, geosynchronous orbit (where all our TV and most communication satellites live) are at 36,371 km from earth, 181 times as far as this probe went to mercury. Even the highest resolution earth imaging satellites we have orbit at around 500km.

    While you can't scoop up the dirt, being that close for visuals has to be nearly as good as landing there...

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    Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.