William Atkins
Thursday, 02 October 2008 19:21
Science -
Space
Page 2 of 3
Now, this second flyby will photograph most of the remaining surface of Mercury that has never been imaged before.
Durng the second flyby, MESSENGER is scheduled to shoot 1,278 images of the planet during the flyby in order to collect scientific data.
Johns Hopkins University (Applied Physics Lab) scientist Louise M. Prockter, the instrument scientist for the Mercury Dual Imaging System onboard the spacecraft, states
"This second flyby will show us a completely new area of Mercury's surface, opposite from the side of the planet we saw during the first.” [NASA]
NASA further describes the next encounter with Mercury by saying,
“The second flyby is expected to yield more surprises about the unique physical processes governing Mercury's atmosphere, as well as additional information about the charged particles located in and around Mercury's dynamic magnetic field."
Further,
"An altimeter on the spacecraft will measure the planet's topography, allowing scientists, for the first time, to correlate high-resolution topography measurements with high-resolution images.”
Equally important, the flyby will enable the spacecraft to slow down, via a “gravitational slingshot” (gravity assist) maneuver,so that during its third flyby in March 2011 it will be able to be captured by the planet’s gravitational field and orbit the planet.
Why does MESSENGER have to slingshot itself around Mercury? Read page three for the answer.
