NASA has sent a robotic orbiter to Mercury to study the planet using instrumentation very similar to what has been used to study Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn.
http://www.astronomy.com/en/News-Observing/News/2011/03/MESSENGER%20spacecraft%20begins%20orbit%20around%20Mercury.aspx
MESSENGER stands for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, Geochemistry, and Ranging. I am starting to think that NASA has an entire department dedicated to making names try and form some cool acronym.
It took MESSENGER over 6 years to reach Mercury and large amounts of fuel. Controllers were required to slowly approach Mercury due to the speed that Mercury travels at and its proximity to the Sun. The large amount of fuel was used to ensure a proper gravitational capture by Mercury.
NASA is a government agency.. of course they have a whole department that makes up these acronym names! Rookie!
ReplyDeleteHere's a pretty cool animation that shows MESSENGER's path to Mercury..
ReplyDeletehttp://messenger.jhuapl.edu/the_mission/movies/encounters/od131cruiseorbitsandtimeline_small.movhttp://messenger.jhuapl.edu/the_mission/movies/encounters/od131cruiseorbitsandtimeline_small.mov
That's a very nice animation - it shows how that when we send spacecraft to other planets, it is rarely as simple as plotting a direct path from A to B.
ReplyDelete