Jun 5 2007
From The Space Library
NASA’s Mercury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft, which had launched in August 2004, made its second and closest pass of Venus. MESSENGER was en route to Mercury and scheduled to reach that planet in January 2008. The flyby, which caused a change in the spacecraft’s direction around the Sun, as well as the craft’s deceleration, enabled scientists to test on-board instruments. All of the instruments performed well, carrying out tasks such as measuring the atmosphere on the day and night sides of Venus and examining the trail that the planet leaves in the atmosphere. The mission team tested the probe’s Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) to calibrate the angle/narrow-angle camera system, which would map Mercury’s landforms and gather data on the planet’s surface composition. Although NASA had not designed MDIS to capture images of cloud-shrouded Venus, the collection of images that the instrument gathered would allow scientists to adjust the camera system’s color-sensitivity parameters and to understand the geometric properties of the instrument better. During its first flyby of Venus in October 2006, MESSENGER had made no scientific observations.
NASA, “NASA Spacecraft Ready for Science-Rich Encounter with Venus,” news release 07-129, 4 June 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jun/HQ_07129_MESSENGER.html (accessed 13 April 2010); Colorado Daily (Boulder, CO), “Making Its Way to Mercury,” 10 June 2007; Alan Boyle, “Mercury Probe Sends Venus Pics,” MSNBC.com, 15 June 2007, http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2007/06/14/4351567-mercury-probesends- venus-pics (accessed 20 June 2010).
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