http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/archive.php/ APL brings you the latest status reports from MESSENGER. en-us Copyright 2008 JHUAPL http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=238 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=238 The International Astronomical Union (IAU) &#8212; the arbiter of planetary and satellite nomenclature since its inception in 1919 &#8212; recently approved a proposal from the MESSENGER Science Team to assign names to nine impact craters on Mercury. In keeping with the established naming theme for craters on Mercury, all of the newly designated features are named after famous deceased artists, musicians, or authors or other contributors to the humanities. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=237 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=237 On March 17, 2013, MESSENGER successfully completed its year-long first extended mission in orbit about Mercury, building on the groundbreaking scientific results from its earlier primary mission. Today the team is poised to embark on a second extended mission that promises to provide new observations of Mercury's surface and interior at unprecedented spatial resolution and of the planet's dynamic magnetosphere and exosphere at high time resolution during the peak and declining phase of the current solar cycle. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=236 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=236 The Planetary Data System (PDS), which archives and distributes data from all of NASA's planetary missions, today released data collected during MESSENGER's thirteenth through eighteenth month in orbit around Mercury. With this release, images and measurements are now available to the public for the third full Mercury solar day of MESSENGER orbital operations. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=235 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=235 In 2012, the MESSENGER mission to Mercury completed its primary mission, embarked on an extended mission, saw its images and maps featured on a highly rated television show, sponsored the release of a dedicated app, and celebrated the 8th anniversary of its launch, all the while continuing to produce new findings about the planet closest to the Sun. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=234 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=234 The International Astronomical Union (IAU) recently approved a proposal from the MESSENGER Science Team to assign names to nine impact craters on Mercury. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=233 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=233 New observations by the MESSENGER spacecraft provide compelling support for the long-held hypothesis that Mercury harbors abundant water ice and other frozen volatile materials in its permanently shadowed polar craters. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=232 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=232 WASHINGTON -- NASA will host a news conference at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Nov, 29, to reveal new observations from the first spacecraft to orbit the planet Mercury. The briefing will be held in the NASA Headquarters auditorium, located at 300 E St. SW in Washington. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=231 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=231 MESSENGER has discovered assemblages of tectonic landforms unlike any previously found on Mercury or elsewhere in the Solar System. The findings are reported in a paper led by Smithsonian scientist Thomas Watters, "Extension and contraction within volcanically buried impact craters and basins on Mercury," published in the December issue of the journal Geology</em>. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=230 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=230 The International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) has awarded the 2012 Laurels for Team Achievement Award to the MESSENGER team. The award was presented September 30 at the opening ceremony of the 63rd International Astronautical Congress, which is being held this week in Naples. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=229 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=229 New data from the X-Ray Spectrometer (XRS) on the MESSENGER spacecraft -- one of two instruments designed to measure the abundances of many key elements on Mercury -- show variations in the composition of surface material on Mercury that point to changes over time in the characteristics of volcanic eruptions on the solar system's innermost planet. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=228 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=228 Late last week, the Planetary Data System (PDS) released data collected during MESSENGER's seventh through twelfth month in orbit around Mercury. PDS archives and distributes all of NASA's planetary mission data. With this release, images and measurements are now available to the public for the second full Mercury solar day of MESSENGER orbital operations. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=227 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=227 The news of Neil Armstrong's death this weekend left many members of the MESSENGER team mourning his loss and reflecting on his legacy. Armstrong died on August 25, at the age of 82. He commanded the Apollo 11 spacecraft that landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969; and an estimated 600 million people witnessed, by television or radio, as he became the first man to set foot on its surface. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=226 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=226 The International Astronomical Union (IAU) recently approved a proposal from the MESSENGER Science Team to assign names to nine impact craters on Mercury. The IAU has been the arbiter of planetary and satellite nomenclature since its inception in 1919. In keeping with the established naming theme for craters on Mercury, all of the newly designated features are named after famous deceased artists, musicians, or authors or other contributors to the humanities. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=225 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=225 The MESSENGER spacecraft <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/the_mission/movies/MESSENGERLaunch.mpg">launched</a> eight years ago today &mdash; on August 3, 2004 &mdash; embarking on a six-and-a-half year journey to become the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury. The spacecraft's 4.9-billion mile (7.9-billion kilometer) cruise to history included 15 trips around the Sun, a flyby of Earth, two flybys of Venus, and three flybys of Mercury. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=224 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=224 MESSENGER will complete its 1,000th orbit of the planet closest to the Sun at 11:22 p.m. EDT tonight. "Reaching this milestone is yet another testimony to the hard work and dedication of the full MESSENGER team that has designed, launched, and operated this highly successful spacecraft," says the mission trajectory lead Jim McAdams of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=223 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=223 MESSENGER scientists have concluded that waves driven by the Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) instability play a key role in driving Mercury's magnetosphere. In a <a href=" http://www.agu.org/journals/ja/ja1204/2011JA017268/">paper</a> published recently in the Journal of Geophysical Research</em>, the team reports on frequent detections of such waves at the outer edge of the innermost planet's magnetosphere. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=222 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=222 Vancouver, B.C. -- Larry Nittler, a staff scientist in the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, has been named deputy principal investigator of the MESSENGER mission. MESSENGER Principal Investigator Sean Solomon, of CIW, delivered the announcement this morning at the first plenary of the 26^th meeting of the MESSENGER Science Team meeting in Vancouver, B.C. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=220 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=220 This week, MESSENGER's Mercury Dual Imaging System delivered the 100,000th image of Mercury since the spacecraft entered into orbit around the planet on March 18, 2011. The instrument &#8212; one of seven aboard the spacecraft &#8212; has globally mapped the planet in high-resolution monochrome images and in color images through eight of its color filters, uncovering a new view of Mercury and shedding light on the planet's geologic history. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=219 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=219 The International Astronomical Union (IAU) recently approved a proposal from the MESSENGER Science Team to assign 23 new names to impact craters on Mercury. The IAU has been the arbiter of planetary and satellite nomenclature since its inception in 1919. In keeping with the established naming theme for craters on Mercury, all of the newly designated features are named after famous deceased artists, musicians, or authors. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=218 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=218 MESSENGER mission controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., conducted the second of two maneuvers required to reduce the spacecraft's orbital period about Mercury. The <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=214">first maneuver</a>, completed on Monday, shortened the orbital period from 11.6 to 9.1 hours and consumed the remaining oxidizer, one of two propellants that fuel the higher-efficiency large thruster. With today's maneuver, accomplished with the spacecraft's four medium-sized thrusters, MESSENGER is now in the 8-hour orbit from which it will operate for the next year. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=214 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=214 The MESSENGER mission successfully completed the first of two maneuvers designed to reduce the spacecraft's orbital period about Mercury. This new trajectory will pave the way for more detailed measurements and targeted observations of the Sun's closest neighbor. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=210 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=210 Tonight, images from MESSENGER's Mercury Dual Imaging System will make their debut on the CBS sitcom, "<a href="http://www.cbs.com/shows/big_bang_theory/">The Big Bang Theory</a>." The award-winning comedy centers on five characters: roommates Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter, two physicists who work at the California Institute of Technology; and Sheldon's and Leonard's equally geeky and socially awkward friends and co-workers, aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz and astrophysicist Rajesh Koothrappali; and Penny, a blonde waitress and aspiring actress who lives across the hall. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=199 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=199 The MESSENGER team has launched a free app that brings you inside NASA's history-making study of Mercury - the first images of the entire planet, along with the detailed data on Mercury's surface, geologic history, thin atmosphere, and active magnetosphere that MESSENGER sends back every day. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=198 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=198 MESSENGER completed its one-year primary mission on March 17. Since moving into orbit about Mercury a little over one year ago, the spacecraft has captured nearly 100,000 images and returned data that have revealed new information about the planet, including its topography, the structure of its core, and areas of permanent shadow at the poles that host the mysterious polar deposits. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=197 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=197 On March 17, 2012, MESSENGER successfully wrapped up a year-long campaign to perform the first complete reconnaissance of the geochemistry, geophysics, geologic history, atmosphere, magnetosphere, and plasma environment of the solar system's innermost planet. The following day, March 18, 2012, marked the official start of an extended phase designed to build upon those discoveries. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=196 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=196 Data collected during MESSENGER's third through sixth month in orbit around Mercury were released to the public today by the Planetary Data System (PDS), an organization that archives and distributes all of NASA's planetary mission data. With this release, data are now available to the public for the first full Mercury solar day of MESSENGER orbital operations. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=195 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=195 MESSENGER successfully completed an orbit-correction maneuver this evening to lower its periapsis altitude - the lowest point of MESSENGER's orbit about Mercury relative to the planet's surface - from 405 to 200 kilometers (251 to 124 miles). This is the first of three planned maneuvers designed to modify the spacecraft's orbit around Mercury as science operations transition from MESSENGER's primary orbital mission to its extended mission. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=194 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=194 SciBox, a scientific planning software package, has proven critical to the success of the MESSENGER mission to Mercury. With completion of the design of all primary-mission observations -- including more than 70,000 images and millions of spectral observations -- the SciBox software tool has substantially increased, relative to original expectations, the scientific return from the first year of Mercury orbital observations. The spacecraft team is now adapting the system to develop the best plan for MESSENGER's extended mission, which begins next month. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=192 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=192 The crater at the center of Wednesday's MESSENGER <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=720"> image of the day </a> is named Dickens, after Charles Dickens, the English novelist who lived from 1812 to 1870. Among Dickens' most famous works is A Christmas Carol, the story of miserly Ebenezer Scrooge and his tortured journey to a more humanitarian and generous nature. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=191 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=191 Discover</em> magazine has named the MESSENGER mission one of the top 100 stories of 2011. "The 100 stories here capture scientific curiosity in all its stages: provocative early results, long-sought confirmation, and many steps in the iterative process of testing theory against observation and vice versa," wrote Discover</em> Editor-in-Chief Corey Powell in the Editor's Note for the January/February 2012 issue of the magazine. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=190 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=190 Members of the MESSENGER team will present a broad range of findings from the spacecraft's orbital investigation of Mercury during the 2011 Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), which takes place this week, December 5-9, in San Francisco. In 63 oral and poster presentations spanning 13 technical sessions, team scientists will report on the analysis and interpretation of observations made by MESSENGER's instruments since the spacecraft entered orbit around Mercury in March 2011. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=189 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=189 MESSENGER was named a winner in Popular Science</em> magazine's 24th annual "Best of What's New" in the Aviation and Space category. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=188 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=188 NASA has announced that it will extend the MESSENGER mission for an additional year of orbital operations at Mercury beyond the planned end of the primary mission on March 17, 2012. The MESSENGER probe became the first spacecraft to orbit the innermost planet on March 18, 2011. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=187 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=187 MESSENGER mission design lead engineer James McAdams has been named an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). To be selected for the grade of Associate Fellow an individual must be an AIAA Senior Member with at least 12 years professional experience and have been recommended by at least three AIAA members who are already Associate Fellows or Fellows. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=186 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=186 The MESSENGER spacecraft successfully completed its fourth orbit-correction maneuver today to increase the period of the spacecraft's orbit around the innermost planet from 11 hours 46 minutes to a precise 12 hours. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=185 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=185 Nantes, France&#8212;MESSENGER scientists will highlight the latest results on Mercury from MESSENGER observations obtained during the first six months (the first Mercury solar day) in orbit. These findings will be presented October 5 in <a href="http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC-DPS2011/session/8295">30 papers and posters</a> as part of a special session of the joint meeting of the European Planetary Science Congress and the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society in Nantes, Frances. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=184 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=184 After only six months in orbit around Mercury, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft is sending back information that has revolutionized the way scientists think about the innermost planet. Analyses of new data from the spacecraft show, among other things, new evidence that flood volcanism has been widespread on Mercury, the first close-up views of Mercury's "hollows," the first direct measurements of the chemical composition of Mercury's surface, and the first global inventory of plasma ions within Mercury's space environment. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=183 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=183 NASA will host a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT on Thursday, September 29, to discuss new data and images from the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury. The new findings are reported in a series of seven papers published in a special section of Science</em> magazine on September 30. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=182 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=182 Data collected during MESSENGER's first two months in orbit around Mercury have been released to the public by the Planetary Data System (PDS), an organization that archives and distributes all of NASA's planetary mission data. Calibrated data from all seven of MESSENGER's science instruments, plus radio science data from the spacecraft telecommunications system, are included in this release. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=181 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=181 Today the MESSENGER spacecraft emerged unscathed from the second of four "hot seasons" expected to occur during its one-year primary mission in orbit around Mercury. Hours later, mission controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., successfully executed a maneuver to adjust the spacecraft's trajectory. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=180 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=180 MESSENGER Co-Investigator Louise Prockter has been elected a fellow of the Geological Society of America (GSA). Established in 1888, the GSA &#8212; comprised of about 25,000 members &#8212; seeks to foster the quest for understanding the Earth, planets, and life; catalyze new scientific ways of thinking about natural systems; and support the application of geoscience knowledge and insight to human needs, aspirations, and Earth stewardship. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=179 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=179 Seven years ago, on August 3, 2004, MESSENGER left Earth aboard a three-stage Boeing Delta II rocket to begin a journey that would take it more than 15 laps through the solar system, through six planetary flybys, and ultimately into orbit around Mercury. The spacecraft has travelled 5.247 billion miles (8.445 billion kilometers) relative to the Sun, and the team is one-third of the way through the one-year science campaign to understand the innermost planet. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=177 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=177 The MESSENGER spacecraft continued to fine-tune its orbit around Mercury yesterday afternoon when mission controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., successfully executed the second orbit-correction maneuver of the mission. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=176 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=176 The Mid-Atlantic Section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) has named MESSENGER team members Peter Bedini and Eric Finnegan as Engineering Manager of the Year and Engineer of the Year, respectively, for 2011. Bedini and Finnegan, both of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., will be honored at an awards dinner later this month. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=175 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=175 MESSENGER Co-Investigator Scott Murchie, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., will be awarded the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest honor that NASA bestows to an individual working outside the government. The award is granted only to individuals whose singular accomplishments contributed substantially to the NASA mission. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=174 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=174 After nearly three months in orbit about Mercury, MESSENGER's payload is providing a wealth of new information about the planet closest to the Sun, as well as a few surprises. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=173 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=173 The MESSENGER spacecraft successfully completed its first orbit-correction maneuver today to reset its periapsis altitude &#8212; the lowest point of MESSENGER's orbit about Mercury relative to the planet's surface &#8212; from 506 kilometers to approximately 200 kilometers. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=172 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=172 Yesterday the MESSENGER spacecraft successfully completed the first of four "hot seasons" expected to occur during its one-year primary mission in orbit about Mercury. During these hot seasons, the Sun-facing side of the probe's sunshade can reach temperatures as high as 350&deg;C. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=171 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=171 NASA will host a news conference at 1 p.m. EDT on Thursday, June 16, 2011, to reveal new images and science findings from the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury. The event will be held in the NASA Headquarters auditorium located at 300 E St. SW, in Washington. NASA Television and the agency's website will broadcast the event. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=170 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=170 Later today, MESSENGER will begin its 100th orbit around Mercury. Since its insertion into orbit about the innermost planet on March 17, the spacecraft has executed nearly 2 million commands. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=169 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=169 MESSENGER carries a Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (GRS) capable of measuring and characterizing gamma-ray emissions from the surface of Mercury. Gamma rays coming from Mercury carry information about the concentrations of elements present on its surface, and observations from the GRS are being used to determine the surface composition of the planet. <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/soc/highlights.html">Read more</a> to see how these results will be applied to studying the formation and geologic history of Mercury. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=168 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=168 MESSENGER's Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) will measure the topography or surface relief of the northern hemisphere of Mercury. That data will be used to create topographic maps, which will help characterize the geologic history of the planet. One of the most important tasks for MLA is to measure the depths of craters that are near Mercury's north pole. In the latest "<a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/soc/highlights.html">Science Highlights from Mercury's Orbit</a>," MESSENGER's Geophysics discipline group explains why. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=167 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=167 One of the primary science goals of MESSENGER is to study Mercury's very thin atmosphere, or exosphere. Although observations of the exosphere from orbit have begun, these data must be carefully calibrated, and analysis is still underway. In the meantime, go online to <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/soc/highlights.html">http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/soc/highlights.html</a> for a primer on Mercury's exosphere: what it is, how we observe it, and why it is important. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=166 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=166 This afternoon, MESSENGER began its yearlong science campaign to understand the innermost planet. The spacecraft will fly around Mercury 700 times over the next 12 months, and its instruments will perform the first complete reconnaissance of the cratered planet's geochemistry, geophysics, geological history, atmosphere, magnetosphere, and plasma environment. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=165 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=165 MESSENGER has delivered its first <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=432">image</a> since entering orbit about Mercury on March 17. It was taken today at 5:20 am EDT by the Mercury Dual Imaging System as the spacecraft sailed high above Mercury's south pole, and provides a glimpse of portions of Mercury's surface not previously seen by spacecraft. The image was acquired as part of the orbital commissioning phase of the MESSENGER mission. Continuous global mapping of Mercury will begin on April 4. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=164 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=164 NASA will release the first orbital image of Mercury's surface, including previously unseen terrain, on Tuesday afternoon, March 29. Several other images will be available Wednesday, March 30, in conjunction with a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT to discuss these initial orbital images taken from the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=163 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=163 Data from its first three days in orbit about Mercury have confirmed the initial assessment of the spacecraft team that MESSENGER is in its intended orbit and operating nominally. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=162 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=162 At 9:10 p.m. EDT, engineers in the MESSENGER Mission Operations Center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., received the anticipated radiometric signals confirming nominal burn shutdown and successful insertion of the MESSENGER probe into orbit around the planet Mercury. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=160 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=160 MESSENGER is now on autopilot, faithfully executing a detailed set of instructions required to achieve its historic rendezvous with Mercury tomorrow night. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=159 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=159 After more than a dozen laps through the inner solar system and six planetary flybys, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft will move into orbit around Mercury at around 9 p.m. EDT on March 17, 2011. The durable spacecraft &mdash; carrying seven science instruments and fortified against the blistering environs near the Sun &mdash; will be the first to orbit the innermost planet. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=158 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=158 NASA will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, March 15, to discuss the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=157 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=157 Ten days from now - on March 17 EDT - the MESSENGER spacecraft will execute a 15-minute maneuver that will place it into orbit about Mercury, making it the first craft ever to do so, and initiating a one-year science campaign to understand the innermost planet. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=155 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=155 The MESSENGER spacecraft has captured the first <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?image_id=399">portrait</a> of our Solar System from the inside looking out. Comprised of 34 images, the mosaic provides a complement to the Solar System portrait &mdash; that one from the outside looking in &mdash; taken by Voyager 1 in 1990. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=156 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=156 After more than a dozen laps through the inner solar system, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft will move into orbit around Mercury on March 17, 2011. The durable spacecraft &mdash; carrying seven science instruments and fortified against the blistering environs near the Sun &mdash; will be the first to orbit the innermost planet. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=154 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=154 One hundred days from now, MESSENGER will execute a 15-minute maneuver that will place the spacecraft into orbit about Mercury, making it the first craft ever to do so, and initiating a one-year science campaign to understand the innermost planet. It has already been 14 years since this mission was first proposed to NASA, more than 10 years since the project officially began, and over six years since the spacecraft was launched. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=153 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=153 The Smithsonian Institution and SAE International (formerly the Society for Automotive Engineers) have honored papers published by scientists on the MESSENGER team. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=152 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=152 The MESSENGER team has just wrapped up a two-week flight test to ensure that the Mercury-bound spacecraft is ready for orbital operations. On March 18, 2011, MESSENGER will become the first spacecraft to enter into orbit about Mercury, embarking on a year-long mission to study in depth the planet closest to the Sun. The completion of this recent test provides a high-fidelity verification of the tools, processes, and procedures that are needed to conduct flight operations at Mercury. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=151 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=151 Today MESSENGER will pass within 0.308 astronomical units (AU) of the Sun (one AU is Earth's distance from the Sun, approximately 150 million kilometers or 93 million miles), providing MESSENGER scientists with another opportunity to search for vulcanoids. Named after the hypothetical planet Vulcan, whose existence was disproven in 1915, vulcanoids are asteroids that orbit the Sun inside the orbit of the planet Mercury. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=149 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=149 The American Geophysical Union has selected a research paper detailing observations of Mercury's magnetosphere during the probe's third flyby as a "Research Highlight" in today's issue of Eos</em>, the AGU's weekly online and print newspaper. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=148 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=148 Analysis of data from MESSENGER's third and final flyby of Mercury in September 2009 has revealed the first observations of emission from an ionized species in Mercury's exosphere, new information about magnetic substorms, and evidence of younger volcanism on the innermost planet than previously recognized. The results are reported in three papers published online on July 15 in the Science Express section of the website of Science magazine. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=147 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=147 Two members of the MESSENGER team have been honored by their peers. Carl Jack Ercol, the man largely responsible for ensuring that MESSENGER can withstand solar radiation up to 11 times greater than at Earth as it orbits the planet closest to the Sun, has received the 2008 SAE Arch T. Colwell Merit Award. Independently, MESSENGER Co-Investigator James W. Head, III, was awarded the Runcorn-Florensky Medal by the European Geosciences Union (EGU) at their General Assembly earlier this month. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=146 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=146 Jack Trombka, a MESSENGER Co-Investigator and member of the Science Team's Geochemistry Group, was recently awarded the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, NASA's highest honor. The award is granted only to individuals whose distinguished accomplishments contributed substantially to the NASA mission. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=145 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=145 It's not easy practicing for something no one has done before, but the MESSENGER team is giving it a go. Mission and science operators have wrapped up the third and fourth in a series of rehearsals for how the spacecraft will be operated once it is in orbit about Mercury. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=144 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=144 One year from today &mdash; starting at 12:45 a.m. UTC &mdash; MESSENGER will transition from orbiting the Sun to being the first spacecraft ever to orbit the planet Mercury. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=143 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=143 The International Astronomical Union (IAU) recently approved a proposal from the MESSENGER Science Team to confer names on 10 impact craters on Mercury. The newly named craters were imaged during the mission's three flybys of Mercury in January and October 2008 and September 2009. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=142 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=142 Today the MESSENGER spacecraft crossed the four-billion-mile mark since its launch. The probe has completed about 81 percent of its journey toward its destination to be the first spacecraft to orbit the planet Mercury. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=141 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=141 NASA's MESSENGER mission team and cartographic experts from the U. S. Geological Survey have created a critical tool for planning the first orbital observations of the planet Mercury - a global mosaic of the planet that will help scientists pinpoint craters, faults, and other features for observation. The map was created from images taken during the MESSENGER spacecraft's three flybys of the planet and those of Mariner 10 in the 1970s. A presentation on the new global mosaic is being given today at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=140 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=140 The Mercury-bound MESSENGER spacecraft completed its fifth and final deep-space maneuver of the mission today, providing the expected velocity change needed to place the spacecraft on course to enter into orbit about Mercury in March 2011. A 3.3-minute firing of its bi-propellant engine provided nearly all of the probe's 177 meter per second (396 mile per hour) increase in its speed relative to the Sun. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=139 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=139 The MESSENGER spacecraft has been named one of Time</em> magazine's best 50 inventions of 2009. The NASA probe, built by the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., came in at number 11. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=138 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=138 WASHINGTON -- A NASA spacecraft's third and final flyby of the planet Mercury gives scientists, for the first time, an almost complete view of the planet's surface and provides new scientific findings about this relatively unknown planet. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=136 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=136 MESSENGER successfully flew by Mercury yesterday, gaining a critical gravity assist that will enable it to enter orbit about Mercury in 2011 and capturing images of five percent of the planet never before seen. With more than 90 percent of the planet's surface already imaged, MESSENGER's science team had drafted an ambitious observation campaign designed to tease out additional details from features uncovered during the first two flybys. But an unexpected signal loss prior to closest approach hampered those plans. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=135 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=135 Shortly before 5:55 p.m. EDT, MESSENGER skimmed 228 kilometers (141 miles) above the surface of Mercury in its third and final flyby of the planet. Radio signals received after the spacecraft emerged from behind the planet indicate that the spacecraft is operating nominally. Its instruments are now collecting images and other scientific measurements from the planet as it departs Mercury. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=134 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=134 MESSENGER's engineering and operations teams convened at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., this morning to confirm the health and readiness of the spacecraft. "All spacecraft sub-systems and instruments reported nominal operations, indicating that MESSENGER was ready for its third encounter with Mercury," said MESSENGER Systems Engineer Eric Finnegan of APL. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=133 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=133 MESSENGER is approximately two days from its third encounter with Mercury. If you look at our "<a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/whereis/index.php">Where Is MESSENGER</a>?" page, which displays the spacecraft's trajectory status, you'll see that it is practically on Mercury's doorstep. This will be the team's last opportunity to practice at Mercury before orbit insertion, so many of the instrument command sequences have been assembled to be similar to how they will operate during the orbital phase of the mission, which begins in March 2011. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=132 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=132 On September 29, 2009, the MESSENGER spacecraft will fly by Mercury for the third and final time, passing 141.7 miles above the planet's rocky surface for a final gravity assist that will enable it to enter orbit about Mercury in 2011. With more than 90 percent of the planet's surface already imaged, the team will turn its instruments during this flyby to specific features to uncover more information about the planet closest to the Sun. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=131 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=131 See Mercury through the "eyes" of MESSENGER's imagers with the Mercury Flyby Visualization Tool, now available at <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/encountersm3/">http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/encountersm3/</a>. This updated Web feature offers a unique opportunity to see simulated views of Mercury from MESSENGER's perspective, during approach, flyby, and departure, or in real-time (as the observations actually occur). http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=130 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=130 WASHINGTON -- NASA will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, Sept. 23, to preview MESSENGER's third and final flyby of Mercury. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=129 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=129 In less than two weeks, on September 29, MESSENGER will fly by Mercury for the third and final time, a maneuver key to placing the probe on a trajectory that will enable its March 2011 insertion into orbit about Mercury. Even as the team readies for this critical event, a parallel effort has long been underway to prepare MESSENGER for the main event. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=128 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=128 On September 29, the MESSENGER spacecraft will pass by Mercury for the third time, flying 141.7 miles above the planet's rocky surface for a final gravity assist that will enable it to enter orbit about Mercury in 2011. This encounter will also provide new observational opportunities for MESSENGER's Magnetometer, designed to determine the structure and origin of Mercury's intrinsic magnetic field. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=127 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=127 It's been five years since MESSENGER was launched atop a Delta II rocket on August 3, 2004, and they have been busy years. It has been a long journey, says MESSENGER Mission Operations Manager Andy Calloway</strong>, "not just in distance travelled - just over 3.5 billion miles so far - but also in terms of significant milestones and accomplishments." http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=126 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=126 The International Astronomical Union (IAU) recently approved a proposal from the MESSENGER Science Team to confer names on 16 impact craters on Mercury. The newly named craters were imaged during the mission's first two flybys of Mercury in January and October last year. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=125 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=125 <strong>Brian Anderson</strong>, <strong>Louise Prockter</strong>, and <strong>Thomas Zurbuchen</strong> have been appointed MESSENGER Co-Investigators by NASA Science Mission Directorate Associate Administrator <strong>Edward Weiler</strong>. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=124 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=124 MESSENGER Co-Investigator <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/who_we_are/member_focus_010307.html">Stanton J. Peale</a>, a professor emeritus renowned for his work in planetary science and astrophysics at University of California, Santa Barbara, was among the 72 new members elected to the National Academy of Sciences. The election was held April 28 during the business session of the 146th annual meeting of the Academy. Those elected bring the total number of active members to 2,150, now including four members of the MESSENGER Science Team. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=123 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=123 Analyses of data from the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft's second flyby of Mercury in October 2008 show that the planet's atmosphere, magnetosphere, and geological past are all characterized by much greater levels of activity than scientists first suspected. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=122 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=122 The National Space Club will award the MESSENGER team its Nelson P. Jackson Aerospace Award this evening at the 52nd annual Dr. Robert H. Goddard Memorial Dinner in Washington, D.C. The award, named in honor of the National Space Club's founder and past president, is presented annually to recognize exceptional teamwork between government and industry in the missile, aircraft, and space fields. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=121 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=121 Mario H. Acu&ntilde;a, a senior astrophysicist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and Co-Investigator on the MESSENGER mission, died on March 5, 2009, after a long battle against multiple myeloma. During his four decades at NASA, he played a critical role in many NASA endeavors, serving as principal investigator or key developer of experiments flown on more than 30 missions to every planet in the solar system, as well as the Sun. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=120 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=120 MESSENGER reaches its orbital perihelion today and passes within 0.31 astronomical units (AU) of the Sun (one AU is nearly 150 million kilometers or 93 million miles). The mission's imaging team is taking advantage of the probe's proximity to the fiery sphere to continue their search for vulcanoids - small, rocky asteroids that have been postulated to circle the Sun in stable orbits inside the orbit of Mercury. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=119 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=119 On December 26, the MESSENGER spacecraft will have traveled three billion miles since its launch, marking somewhat more than 60 percent of the probe's journey toward its destination to be inserted into orbit about Mercury. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=118 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=118 Members of the MESSENGER science team will present a range of new findings from the spacecraft's studies of the planet Mercury during the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting next week in San Francisco. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=117 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=117 MESSENGER completed the second part of a two-part deep-space maneuver today, providing the remaining 10% velocity change needed to place the probe on course to fly by Mercury for the third time in September 2009. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=116 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=116 The Mercury-bound spacecraft MESSENGER completed the first part of a two-part deep-space maneuver today, providing the expected 90% of the velocity change needed to place the spacecraft on course to fly by Mercury for the third time in September 2009. A 4.5-minute firing of its bi-propellant engine increased the probe's speed relative to the Sun by 219 meters per second (489 miles per hour) to a speed of about 30.994 kilometers per second (69,333 miles per hour). http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=115 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=115 The International Astronomical Union (IAU) recently approved a proposal from the MESSENGER Science Team to name 15 craters on Mercury. All of the newly named craters were imaged during the mission's first flyby of the solar system's innermost planet in January 2008. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=114 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=114 Gliding over the battered surface of Mercury for the second time this year, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft has revealed even more previously unseen real estate on the innermost planet, sending home hundreds of photos and measurements of its surface, atmosphere, and magnetic field. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=113 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=113 Shortly after 4 a.m. this morning, MESSENGER reached its greatest speed relative to the Sun. The spacecraft, nearly 70% closer to the Sun than Earth, was traveling nearly 140,880 miles per hour (62.979 kilometers per second) relative to the Sun. At this speed MESSENGER would traverse the distance from Earth to Earth's Moon in only 1.7 hours! http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=112 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=112 By using solar sailing - rotating the spacecraft and tilting its solar panels to use the very small pressure from sunlight to alter the spacecraft's trajectory - MESSENGER navigators have achieved a new record for the smallest miss distance between the intended and actual closest approach distance during a flyby of a planet other than Earth. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=111 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=111 When Mariner 10 flew past Mercury three times in 1974 and 1975, the probe imaged less than half the planet. In January, during MESSENGER's first flyby, its cameras returned images of about 20 percent of the planet's surface missed by Mariner 10. Yesterday, at 4:40 am EDT, MESSENGER successfully completed its second flyby of Mercury, and its cameras captured more than 1,200 high-resolution and color images of the planet - unveiling another 30 percent of Mercury's surface that had never before been seen by spacecraft. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=110 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=110 At a little after 4:40 a.m. EDT, MESSENGER skimmed 200 kilometers (124 miles) above the surface of Mercury in the second of three flybys of the planet. Initial indications from the radio signals indicate that the spacecraft continues to operate nominally. The spacecraft is now collecting images and other scientific measurements from the planet as it departs Mercury from the illuminated side, filling in the details of much of Mercury's surface not previously viewed by spacecraft. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=109 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=109 MESSENGER's engineering and operations teams convened at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., this afternoon to confirm the health and readiness of the spacecraft. "All spacecraft sub-systems and instruments reported nominal operations indicating that MESSENGER is ready for its second encounter with Mercury," said MESSENGER Systems Engineer Eric Finnegan of APL. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=108 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=108 If you look at our <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/whereis/index.php">"Where Is MESSENGER?"</a> page, which displays the spacecraft's trajectory status, you'll see that we're right on Mercury's doorstep. MESSENGER's mission design and navigation teams met today at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., to discuss the spacecraft's current trajectory to determine if a last-minute trajectory-correction maneuver would be needed. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=107 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=107 MESSENGER mission operators at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., have received the <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=206">first optical navigation images</a> from the spacecraft. "We will be taking seven additional sets over the next three days as the spacecraft approaches the planet," said APL's Eric Finnegan, the Mission Systems Engineer. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=106 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=106 On October 6, for the second time in less than a year, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft will swoop just 200 kilometers (125 miles) above the cratered surface of Mercury, snapping hundreds of pictures and collecting a variety of other data from the planet as it gains a critical gravity assist that keeps the probe on track to become the first spacecraft ever to orbit the innermost planet beginning in March 2011. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=105 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=105 One week from today, the MESSENGER spacecraft will fly by Mercury for the second time this year. As part of the final preparations for this encounter, the Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) has been powered on after having been off since shortly after the first flyby at the beginning of the year. The entire MESSENGER science payload is now powered and configured to collect data during next week's encounter. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=104 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=104 Two weeks from today, the MESSENGER spacecraft will fly by Mercury for the second time. As part of the final preparations for this encounter, the Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (GRS) was placed in an "anneal mode" to prepare its detector for optimal performance during the flyby. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=103 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=103 It is now only slightly more than three weeks before the MESSENGER spacecraft flies by Mercury for the second time. At 4:40 a.m. ET on October 6, the craft will speed by the planet, passing within 125 miles (200 kilometers) and gaining a gravity assist that will tighten its orbit and keep it on its course to pass the planet one last time next year before becoming the first spacecraft ever to orbit Mercury, beginning in 2011. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=102 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=102 On September 4, the MESSENGER team announced that it would not need to implement a scheduled maneuver to adjust the probe's trajectory. This is the fourth time this year that such a maneuver has been called off. The reason? A recently implemented navigational technique that makes use of solar-radiation pressure (SRP) to guide the probe has been extremely successful at maintaining MESSENGER on a trajectory that will carry it over the cratered surface of Mercury for a second time on October 6. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=101 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=101 Data from MESSENGER's first flyby of Mercury have been released to the public by the Planetary Data System (PDS), an organization that archives and distributes all of NASA's planetary mission data. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=100 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=100 Scientists have argued about the origins of Mercury's smooth plains and the source of its magnetic field for over 30 years. Now, analyses of data from the January 2008 flyby of the planet by the MESSENGER spacecraft have shown that volcanoes were involved in plains formation and suggest that its magnetic field is actively produced in the planet's core and is not a frozen relic. Scientists additionally took their first look at the chemical composition the planet's surface material. The tiny craft probed the composition of Mercury's thin atmosphere, sampled charged particles (ions) near the planet, and demonstrated new links between both sets of observations and materials on Mercury's surface. The results are reported in a series of 11 papers published in a special section of the July 4 issue of Science magazine. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=99 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=99 NASA will host a media teleconference Thursday, July 3, at 2 p.m. EDT, to discuss analysis of data from the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft's flyby of Mercury earlier this year. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=98 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=98 Jim McAdams, the MESSENGER mission design lead engineer, was named the 2008 Engineer of the Year by the Baltimore Section, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Each spring, this chapter of AIAA honors those in the aerospace community who have made significant contributions during the previous year. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=97 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=97 The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has approved new names for features on Mercury and agreed on a new theme for fossae on the planet. These newly christened features were discovered from images taken by the MESSENGER spacecraft during its first flyby of Mercury in January. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=96 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=96 The MESSENGER spacecraft delivered a critical deep-space maneuver today - 64 million miles (103 million kilometers) from Earth - successfully firing its large bi-propellant engine to change the probe's trajectory and target it for its second flyby of Mercury on October 6, 2008. This was the first trajectory-correction maneuver (TCM) to test the continuous slow rotation of the spacecraft throughout the burn, essential for the March 18, 2011, Mercury orbit-insertion (MOI) maneuver. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=95 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=95 During its January flyby of Mercury, the MESSENGER spacecraft observed swaths of the innermost planet never before seen up close. Members of the MESSENGER mission team will present findings from that historic encounter and discuss Mercury science during the <a href="http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2008/">39th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference</a> March 10-14 at the South Shore Harbour Resort and Conference Center in League City, Texas. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=94 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=94 During MESSENGER's flyby of Mercury on January 14, 2008, the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) acquired images to create eight different mosaics. Shown <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=172">here</a> is an image context sheet with small thumbnail versions of the MDIS Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) images that were captured as the spacecraft approached the planet and used to create a high-resolution mosaic of Mercury. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=93 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=93 As MESSENGER sped by Mercury on January 14, 2008, the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) captured <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=171">this image</a>, which includes the edge of the planet against the blackness of space. Much of the foreground shows a portion of Caloris basin, one of the largest impact basins in the solar system. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=92 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=92 As MESSENGER flew by Mercury on January 14, 2008, the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) captured <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=166">this view</a>. Two of the larger craters in this image appear to have darkened crater rims and partial "halos" of dark material immediately surrounding the craters. Both craters appear to have nearly complete rims and interior terraced walls, suggesting that they formed more recently than the other nearby shallower craters of similar size. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=91 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=91 MESSENGER's Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) captured <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=161">this image</a> during the flyby one month ago. The Sun is illuminating this region at a low angle, accentuating the modest ridges and other low topography on these nearly flat plains. Low ridges trend from the top-center of the image to the left edge (white arrows). The ghostly remains of craters are visible, filled to their rims by what may have been volcanic lavas (red arrows). http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=90 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=90 Little more than three weeks after MESSENGER's first historic flyby of Mercury, the team this week began mapping out its trajectory and observation plans for the probe's second pass of the planet this fall. On October 6, 2008, at 4:39 a.m. EST, the spacecraft will once again fly 200 kilometers (124 miles) above the surface of the planet. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=58 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=58 After a journey of more than 2.2 billion miles and three and a half years, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft made its first flyby of Mercury just after 2 PM Eastern Standard Time on January 14, 2008. All seven scientific instruments worked flawlessly, producing a stream of surprises that is amazing and delighting the science team. The 1,213 mages conclusively show that the planet is a lot less like the Moon than many previously thought, with features unique to this innermost world. The puzzling magnetosphere appears to be very different from what Mariner 10 discovered and first sampled almost 34 years ago. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=26 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=26 After MESSENGER completed its successful flyby of Mercury, the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC), part of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS), took images of the receding planet. Beginning on January 14, 2008, about 100 minutes after MESSENGER's closest pass by the surface of Mercury, until January 15, 2008, about 19 hours later, the NAC acquired one image every four minutes. In all, 288 images were snapped during this sequence; <A title="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=142" href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=142">shown here</A> are just 12 of those departing shots. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=31 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=31 Two weeks ago, on January 14, 2008, MESSENGER became the first spacecraft to see the side of Mercury shown in this image. <A href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?page=3&gallery_id=2&image_id=129">The first image transmitted back to Earth following the flyby of Mercury</A>, and then released to the web within hours, shows the historic first look at the previously unseen side. <A href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=141&preview=Y">This image</A>, taken by the Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS), shows a closer view of much of that territory. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=32 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=32 <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=140">This frame</a>, taken by the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS), shows a region of Mercury's surface previously unseen by spacecraft and a large scarp crossing vertically through the scene, on the far right of the image. This scarp is the northern continuation of the one seen in the <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?page=3&gallery_id=2&image_id=119">NAC image released on January 16</a>. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=33 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=33 As MESSENGER sped by Mercury on January 14, 2008, the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) captured <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=139">this shot</a> looking toward Mercury's north pole. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=34 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=34 During MESSENGER's flyby of Mercury on January 14, 2008, part of the planned sequence of observations included taking images of the same portion of Mercury's surface from five different viewing angles. The first view from this sequence was taken just after MESSENGER made its closest approach to Mercury, from a low viewing angle; <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?page=1&gallery_id=2&image_id=125">an image of the first view</a> was released on January 19. <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=137">The image released here</a>, acquired with the Wide Angle Camera (WAC) on the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS), was snapped 13 minutes after MESSENGER's closest approach with Mercury. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=35 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=35 MESSENGER team members have been identifying and measuring the impact craters on portions of Mercury that had not been previously seen by spacecraft. By counting craters on different areas of the planet's surface, a relative geologic history of the planet can be constructed, indicating which surfaces formed first and which formed later. In <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=136">this image</a>, 763 craters have been identified and measured (shown in green) along with 189 hills (shown in yellow). http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=36 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=36 As MESSENGER approached Mercury on January 14, 2008, the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) snapped <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=134">this image</a> of the crater Matisse. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=37 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=37 <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=132">This visible-infrared image</a> shows an incoming view of Mercury, about 80 minutes before MESSENGER's closest pass of the planet on January 14, 2008, from a distance of about 27,000 kilometers (17,000 miles). http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=38 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=38 Today the MESSENGER team released this image <http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=131> , which shows a side of Mercury not previously seen by a spacecraft, with a view looking toward the planet's south pole. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=39 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=39 As it departed Mercury on January 14, 2008, MESSENGER's Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) on the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) acquired <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=127">this view</a> of Mercury's surface illuminated obliquely from the right by the Sun, and <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=128">this frame</a>, which records a complex history of geological evolution. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=40 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=40 Today the MESSENGER team released two new images. One, taken nine minutes after the spacecraft passed 200 kilometers (124 miles) above the surface of Mercury, shows the planet's surface as seen from a low viewing angle, looking over the surface and off the limb of the planet on the right side of the image. The second figure shows the distance, or range, from the spacecraft to the surface of Mercury as measured by Mercury Laser Altimeter during the flyby of Mercury. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=41 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=41 A day after its successful flyby of Mercury, the MESSENGER spacecraft turned toward Earth on Tuesday and began downloading the 500 megabytes of data that had been stored on the solid-state recorder during the encounter. All of those data, including 1,213 images from the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) cameras, have now been received by the Science Operations Center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=42 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=42 Shortly following MESSENGER's closest approach to Mercury on January 14, 2008, the spacecraft's Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) on the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) instrument acquired <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=121">this image</a> as part of a mosaic that covers much of the sunlit portion of the hemisphere not viewed by Mariner 10. It provides insight into the relative timing of processes that have acted on Mercury's surface in the past. <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=122">This image</a> is one of those mosaic frames and was acquired on January 14, 2008, 18:10 UTC, when the spacecraft was about 18,000 kilometers (11,000 miles) from the surface of Mercury, about 55 minutes before MESSENGER's closest approach to the planet. It shows a variety of surface textures. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=43 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=43 Just 21 minutes after MESSENGER's closest approach to Mercury on January 14, 2008, the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) took <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=119">this picture</a> showing a variety of intriguing surface features, including craters as small as about 300 meters (about 300 yards) across. <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=120">This image</a>, taken 37 minutes after MESSENGER's closest approach to the planet, shows a previously unseen crater with distinctive bright rays of ejected material extending radially outward from the crater's center. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=44 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=44 As MESSENGER approached Mercury on January 14, 2008, the spacecraft's Narrow-Angle Camera on the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) instrument captured <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=118">this view</a> of the planet's rugged, cratered landscape illuminated obliquely by the Sun. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=45 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=45 When Mariner 10 flew past Mercury three times in 1974 and 1975, the same hemisphere was in sunlight during each encounter. As a consequence, Mariner 10 was able to image less than half the planet. Planetary scientists have wondered for more than 30 years about what spacecraft images might reveal about the hemisphere of Mercury that Mariner 10 never viewed. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=46 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=46 At 16:30 UTC (11:30 a.m. EST) today, MESSENGER flight controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., received the first telemetry from the spacecraft following the probe's closest approach to Mercury yesterday. All spacecraft subsystems and instruments are operating normally, and telemetry data indicate that the command sequence during the flyby executed as expected. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=47 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=47 Today, at 19:04:39 UTC (2:04:39 pm EST), MESSENGER will fly 200 kilometers (124 miles) above Mercury's surface. As the spacecraft continues to speed toward the planet, the Narrow Angle Camera, part of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) instrument, acquired <A title="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/" href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/">this</A> crescent view of Mercury. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=55 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=55 Today, at 19:04:39 UTC (2:04:39 pm EST), MESSENGER will fly 200 kilometers (124 miles) above Mercury's surface. As the spacecraft continues to speed toward the planet, the Narrow Angle Camera, part of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) instrument, acquired <a title="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/" href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/">this</a> crescent view of Mercury. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=48 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=48 MESSENGER's engineering and operations teams convened at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., early this morning to confirm the health and readiness of the spacecraft. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=49 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=49 If you look at our "Where Is MESSENGER?" page, which displays the spacecraft's trajectory status, you'll see we're right on Mercury's doorstep. MESSENGER's mission design and navigation teams at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., met yesterday to discuss the spacecraft's current trajectory to determine if a last-minute trajectory-correction maneuver would be needed. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=50 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=50 The countdown to the first flyby of Mercury by the MESSENGER spacecraft has begun. Sunday morning, MESSENGER will start recording the evidence of this historic event. At 8 a.m. EST on January 13 - 30 hours before the closest approach to Mercury - the spacecraft will turn its main antennas away from Earth and automatically begin executing the 5,000 on-board stored commands. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=51 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=51 NASA will return to Mercury for the first time in almost 33 years on January 14, 2008, when the MESSENGER spacecraft makes its first flyby of the Sun's closest neighbor, capturing images of large portions of the planet never before seen. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=52 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=52 MESSENGER mission operators at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., have received the first eight optical navigation images from the spacecraft. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=53 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=53 The MESSENGER spacecraft continues to approach Mercury and will be less than 3 million kilometers (1.9 million miles) away from the planet at the end of today. In just six days - on January 14, 2008, at 2:04 p.m. EST - the probe will pass a mere 200 kilometers (124 miles) above Mercury's surface. Extensive scientific observations are planned during this historic flyby, the first spacecraft flyby of Mercury in more than 30 years. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=54 http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=54 MESSENGER's mid-December trajectory correction maneuver (<a href="status_report_12_19_07.html">TCM-19</a>) went so well that the mission design and navigation teams have decided that a TCM scheduled for January 10 will not be needed.