NASA readies its MESSENGER around Mercury

William Atkins
Wednesday, 16 March 2011 23:49

Science - Space

The NASA spacecraft MESSENGER has spent over 6.5 years traveling to the planet Mercury. On March 17, 2011, it will enter an orbit about Mercury, the first time any human-made probe has successfully done so in the history of space exploration.

The MESSENGER spacecraft was launched on August 3, 2004, from Space Launch Complex 17B at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which is next to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It was launched by a Delta II 7925 launch vehicle.

It has spent the last six years, seven months covering about 4.7 billion miles (7.6 billion kilometers) in its loop-d-loop journey to the hot and rocky planet we call Mercury. During this time, it has looped around the Sun 15 times.

It also performed one flyby of Earth, two flybys of Venus, and three flybys of Mercury.

During this time (in November 2010), its camera system took a 'family photo' of the eight planets in our solar system. Neptune and Uranus were in the picture, but they were too far away to see. Check out the image at: 'Family Portrait (MESSENGER)'.

On March 17, 2011, at about 8:45 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), the MESSENGER spacecraft will perform an approximate 15-minute maneuver that will insert it into orbit around Mercury.

This will be an historic burn as this probe will become the first craft to orbit this smallest planet in the Solar System.

Then, at about 9:00 p.m. EDT, the spacecraft is expected to begin orbiting around Mercury for its approximate 1-year mission around the planet.

The NASA probe will orbit the planet once every 12 hours for the next year. It will be approximately 124 miles (200 kilometers) above the surface of Mercury - a surface that is hot enough (at 800 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 427 degrees Celsius) at some locations to melt lead.

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