- Artist captures NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft in orbit around the planet Mercury. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft is the first spacecraft ever to enter Mercury’s orbit.
Arriving in orbit around the planet on March 17, the spacecraft is orbiting that globe once every 12 hours for the duration of its primary mission.
According to mission officials, the spacecraft is healthy and operating normally.
All the science instruments have been turned on except for the camera system. The Mercury Dual Imaging System will be powered on early next week and will take its first images.
MESSENGER’s year-long science observation campaign will start on April 4.
“The team is relieved that things have gone so well, but they remain busy as they continue to configure the spacecraft for orbital operations and monitor its health and safety in the new environment,” said MESSENGER Project Manager Peter Bedini, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. APL built the Mercury orbiter for NASA.
Shared adventure
“We are about to embark on the first essentially continuous observations of Mercury by an orbiting spacecraft,” added MESSENGER principal investigator Sean Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. “It will be a shared adventure long anticipated and much to be relished.”
MESSENGER stands for (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging).
This Discovery-class mission is a NASA-sponsored scientific investigation of the planet Mercury and is the first space mission designed to orbit the planet closest to the Sun.
MESSENGER was launched on August 3, 2004. After flybys of Earth, Venus, and Mercury the probe is ready to begin a yearlong study of its target planet.
For complete information on MESSENGER’s Mercury orbital operations, go online to:
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/mer_orbit.html
By LD/CSE