Oct 24 2006
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(New page: NASA’s Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft performed the first of two scheduled flybys past the planet Venus, a maneuver intended...)
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NASA’s Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft performed the first of two scheduled flybys past the planet Venus, a maneuver intended eventually to steer the spacecraft to its final destination, Mercury. MESSENGER was the second spacecraft that NASA had launched to Mercury; the first had been Mariner 10, which had flown past the planet in 1974 and 1975. NASA had created MESSENGER to produce color maps of Mercury’s surface and to conduct compositional analyses of the planet’s atmosphere, magnetosphere, and surface. NASA had sent MESSENGER past Venus to collect new information about the planet—the closest planet to Earth—and to test equipment on the spacecraft. NASA had planned the Venus flyby as one of several planetary passages that, collectively, would help MESSENGER reach Mercury. During these planetary passages, the gravity of Venus and of the other planets would help decelerate MESSENGER, altering its trajectory so that the spacecraft would eventually attain orbit around Mercury. NASA planned for MESSENGER to fly past Venus again in June 2007, with the goal of reaching Mercury by 2011.
Britt Norlander, “Dropping By,” Science World, 23 October 2006, 6; Von Puttkamer, “Space Flight 2006.”
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