MESSENGER Updates/Earth Departure Movie

[telfrow]

<i>The Mercury-bound MESSENGER spacecraft captured several stunning images of Earth during a gravity assist swingby of its home planet on Aug. 2, 2005. Several hundred images, taken with the wide-angle camera in MESSENGER’s Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS), were sequenced into a movie documenting the view from MESSENGER as it departed Earth.<br /><br />Comprising 358 frames taken over 24 hours, the movie follows Earth through one complete rotation. The spacecraft was 40,761 miles (65,598 kilometers) above South America when the camera started rolling on Aug. 2. It was 270,847 miles (435,885 kilometers) away from Earth – farther than the Moon’s orbit – when it snapped the last image on Aug. 3.</i><br /><br />http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/the_mission/flyby_movie.html<br /><br /><b>Awesome....</b><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

[telfrow]

<b>Images from the August 2, 2005 MESSENGER Flyby of Earth</b><br /><br />From: http://www.planetary.org/news/2005/messenger_flyby_movie_0826.html<br /><br /><i>On August 2, 2005, MESSENGER flew by Earth at an altitude of a mere 2,347 kilometers above Mongolia. The close pass came almost exactly a year after the spacecraft's launch, and was the first of six gravity-assist maneuvers (including one of Earth, two of Venus, and three of Mercury) that are required to allow MESSENGER to enter orbit at Mercury on March 8, 2011.<br /><br />The August 2 flyby provided the first opportunity for the spacecraft to test many of its science instruments. It began by snapping a distant image of the Earth-Moon system on June 2, and finished with a beautiful movie of the spinning blue-green marble of Earth. <br /><br />This pair of images shows what MESSENGER's Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) can do.<br /><br />The pair of images above represents the same viewpoint on Earth through two different sets of filters. On the left, three filters in red, green, and blue wavelengths were combined to make an image that approximates what the human eye would see. The green mass at the center is the Amazon jungle of South America. The deserts of West Africa are just visible on the edge of the Earth's disk below and to the right of South America. The right-hand image is "pushed" into the near infrared; instead of red, green, and blue, it is composed of images taken through near-infrared, red, and green filters. Chlorophyll, the green pigment in plant leaves, is very strongly reflective at near infrared wavelengths, much more so than it is in red or green wavelengths, so the vegetated parts of Earth burst into bright red color. The spacecraft was 102,918 kilometers (63,950 miles) away from Earth when the images were taken. At full resolution, they represent only 1/10 the level of detail that MDIS will achieve in</i> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

[tom_hobbes]

The full size movie is absolutely sensational, thanks for the link telfrow. Looking forward to those Mercury images! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2" color="#339966"> I wish I could remember<br /> But my selective memory<br /> Won't let me</font><font size="2" color="#99cc00"> </font><font size="3" color="#339966"><font size="2">- </font></font><font size="1" color="#339966">Mark Oliver Everett</font></p><p> </p> </div>

 

[crix]

That movie is fantastic! What an amazing sensation it is to view the world and all its dramas from this perspective.

 

[davp99]

Very Cool ~! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="4">Dave..</font> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

Gorgeous! I've been waiting for them to get that movie out; I'm really glad you posted to let us all know that it's available! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[telfrow]

<b>Status Report: MESSENGER Team Prepares for December Maneuver</b><br />November 11, 2005<br /><br /><i>After successfully uploading new software to the MESSENGER spacecraft, mission controllers at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, are setting their sights on the December Deep Space Maneuver (DSM-1), when the craft’s large bipropellant thruster will be fired for the first time.<br /><br />The updated software was designed to address minor glitches in the spacecraft guidance and control and command and data handling subsystems. “The bugs were typical of those discovered post-launch,” explains MESSENGER Mission Operations Manager Mark Holdridge of APL. For instance, shortly after launch they noticed that when the craft was in the Earth acquisition mode, the lowest safe mode of operation, its rotation gradually slowed down. That behavior was traced to a bug in the software, specifically to how the inertial measurement unit (IMU) data were time tagged.<br /><br />“You learn how to work around these things, but you’d rather fix them in the long-term,” Holdridge says. He adds that “It’s a little tricky to load new software on a spacecraft while it’s in flight and still controlling the spacecraft’s attitude. A couple of the fixes for guidance and control should help improve the performance with the large maneuver we have planned for December.”</i><br /><br />http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/status_report_11_11_05.html <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

[kane007]

<font color="black">DECEMBERS MANEUVER</font><br />12 December 2005<br /><br /><i>NASA's Mercury-bound MESSENGER spacecraft has successfully fired its large bipropellant thruster for the first time since launch, completing the first of several critical deep space maneuvers that will help the spacecraft reach Mercury orbit. The burn puts the craft on course for a close flyby of Venus next year.<br /><br />The 524-second burn changed MESSENGER's velocity by about 316 meters per second (706 miles per hour), putting the solar-powered spacecraft on track for a 3,140-kilometer (1,951-mile) altitude flyby of Venus on October 24, 2006.</i><br /><br /><b>Full storey here</b>

 

[telfrow]

<b>Space probe breaks laser record</b><br /><br /><i>A spacecraft has sent a laser signal to Earth from 24 million km (15 million miles) away in interplanetary space. <br />The Messenger probe exchanged laser signals with a US ground station partway through its journey to the planet Mercury. <br /><br />Messenger blasted off in 2004 on a mission to map the surface of the nearest planet to the Sun. <br /><br />After arriving in 2011, the probe will orbit Mercury for a year to explore its atmosphere, composition and structure. <br /><br />The US space agency (Nasa) craft is equipped with a laser altimeter that will map the topography of Mercury by timing the return of laser pulses fired at the planet. <br /><br />The instrument and the ground station in Maryland transmitted laser pulses back and forth in a test of the payload carried out in May. <br /><br />David Smith of the Nasa Goddard SpaceFlight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland, US, and colleagues, reported the experiment in the latest edition of the journal Science. <br /><br />"This experiment has demonstrated subnanosecond laser pulse timing and accomplished a two-way laser link at interplanetary distance," they said. <br /><br />"In addition, it established a distance record for laser transmission and detection."</i> <br /><br /> Link <br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

[henryhallam]

That's pretty cool. I hope lasers get tested in a datalink application at interplanetary range before too long, pity about the Mars Telecomms Orbiter cancellation.

 

[kane007]

MESSENGER spacecraft completes Venus flyby - 2006/10/24<br /><br />NASA's Mercury-bound MESSENGER spacecraft came within 2,990 kilometers (1,860 miles) of the surface of Venus early this morning during its second planetary encounter. The spacecraft used the tug of the planet's gravity to change its trajectory significantly, shrinking the radius of its orbit around the Sun and bringing it closer to Mercury.<br /><br />MESSENGER swung by Venus at 8:34 UTC (4:34 a.m. EDT), according to mission operators at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md. About 18 minutes after the approach, an anticipated solar eclipse cut off communication between Earth and the spacecraft. Contact was reestablished at 14:15 UTC (10:15 a.m. EDT) through NASA's Deep Space Network, and the team is collecting data to assess MESSENGER's performance during the flyby. <br /><br />Shortly before the Venus flyby the spacecraft entered superior conjunction, placing it on the exact opposite side of the sun as Earth, making communication between MESSENGER and Mission Operations difficult, if not impossible. "So we are not making any scientific observations at the time of this flyby," says Sean C. Solomon, the mission's principal investigator, from the Carnegie Institution of Washington. "We shall conduct a full suite of observations surrounding the second flyby in June 2007."<br /><br />In late November, when routine radio contact with the spacecraft is re-established, the team will collect data to determine how closely MESSENGER followed its plans and to update knowledge of its orbit. This information will enable operators to plan for the December 12 trajectory correction maneuver that will target the spacecraft for the second Venus flyby.<br /><br />The spacecraft is relying on multiple planetary flybys to "catch" Mercury and begin orbiting the planet. Another flyby of Venus in June of 2007 will

 

[alokmohan]

Now we await arrival to mercury.Will it land on mercury?

 

[kane007]

Orbiter only.

 

[kane007]

<b>UPDATE</b><br /><br />Mission Elapsed Time<br />2004_08_03<br />DAYS HRS MINS <br /><font color="red">848 07 01 </font><br /><br />Venus Flyby 2<br />2007_06_05<br />DAYS HRS MINS <br /><font color="red">188 13 33 </font><br /><br />Mercury Orbit Insertion<br />2011_03_18<br />DAYS HRS MINS <br /><font color="red">1569 16 40 </font>/safety_wrapper>

 

[halman]

telfrow,<br /><br />I just watched the Earth Departure Movie. Oh, would I love to see that with my own eyes, looking out a viewport! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> The secret to peace of mind is a short attention span. </div>