First-ever spacecraft to orbit Mercury ... happening tonight!!!

[shireen]

check out preps for orbit insertion here!
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/

Lots of cool images and animation too. :D


http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=160
MESSENGER On Autopilot for Orbit Insertion
MESSENGER is now on autopilot, faithfully executing a detailed set of instructions required to achieve its historic rendezvous with Mercury tomorrow night.

At 8 a.m. Tuesday, all attitude re-orientations planned to control the probe’s momentum accumulation and adjust its trajectory were successfully completed. MESSENGER turned to point its high-gain antenna back to Earth for the final stretch of continuous data monitoring until just before the start of Mercury orbit insertion.

The operations team at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), in Laurel, Md., has monitored on-board commanded vehicle re-configurations and has sent pre-defined ground commands to establish configurations for the burn.

The science instrument suite has recorded the last set of data for the cruise portion of the mission, and all instruments have been turned off. Although not in an operational mode, the Gamma-Ray Spectrometer has been left in its stand-by mode to ensure thermal stability of the delicate cryogenic cooler. The instruments will be tuned back on as part of orbital commissioning beginning on March 23.

“The navigation team is reporting that there has been little change from the previous targeting estimates, so the spacecraft is on the glide-slope for final approach to Mercury,” says MESSENGER Systems Engineer Eric Finnegan.


YAY Mercury & MESSENGER! :bounce:



(Shameless plug, i wrote about it here: http://earthsky.org/space/on-march-17-first-ever-craft-inserted-to-orbit-around-mercury

[no limit]

1. Really cool!

[arcane1]

2. Messenger has been on one hell of a trip!

I'm rooting for the little guy today! :toast:

[shireen]

4. have you seen the complete trajectory and orbital insertion animations? WOW!

This is the definition of, as you said, "one hell of a trip!" http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/the_mission/movies/encounters/od131cruiseorbitsandtimeline.mov

Includes 6 gravity assists, 1 from Earth, 2 from Venus, and 3 from Mercury itself!!!


And this one for orbital insertion is totally wild!
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/the_mission/movies/encounters/MESSENGER%20MOI%20STK%20anim%20w%20orbit%20insert_1.5%20orbit%2053sec.mov

:woohoo:

[TheMadMonk]

9. So why weren't the gaps filled on the first pass?

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Well, of COURSE they're doing it at night.

It would be awfully hot there in the daytime, I should think.

[shireen]

5. a few head-spinning facts

Mercury fun facts:
- biggest swing in temperatures of any solar system planet, as high as 800 degrees Fahrenheit at the equator when it’s closest to the sun. At the north and south poles, where sunlight cannot reach the floor of deep craters, the temperature can drop as low as -300 degrees Fahrenheit. Some scientists think there may be ice at the floors of those craters -- radio observations from Earth have detected some evidence but they need spectroscopic observations from the spacecraft to confirm it!

- takes just 88 days to make a revolution around the sun (one Mercury year). It takes 59 days to complete one rotation about its axis. However, because of its fast-paced revolution around the sun, one Mercury solar day – the time it takes for the sun to appear overhead from one day to the next – is 176 days! In other words, it takes two Mercury years to complete one solar Mercury day!
:wow:

[Phoonzang]

6. I just got why they called it "MESSENGER"

Clever. I, on the other hand... :think:

[shireen]

7. LOL! yes someone was very clever ....

not just the messenger of the gods in Roman Mythology. It's also an acronym for ...

MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging

:7

[byronius]

8. Less than an hour until insertion burn.

Live feed starts in a couple of minutes.

http://mfile.akamai.com/7111/live/reflector:22179.asx?bkup=22194

[shireen]

10. it worked!

Messenger is in Mercury orbit!!!

:party: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :thumbsup: :applause: :applause: :applause: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :patriot: