Interesting number combination. In 43 minutes, orbital insertion will occur in 777 days, 7 hours and 7 minutes.

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Keeper of the Jabberwock

Should have waited until it was 35 minutes. (5 7's)

March 18, 2011...it's going to be a long wait. There's one more flyby in September of this year, though.

Darn it. I was going to post this last week and it totally slipped my mind. Messenger passed its ninth perihelion on the 4th. It has two more orbits to go until the next Mercury pass this fall.

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Keeper of the Jabberwock

Vulcanoids!

...or the hunt for them, anyway.

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=30577

Here's hoping!

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There in the valley of Scorpio, beneath the Cross of jade
Smoking on the seashell pipe the gypsies had made
We sat and we dreamed a while...in that crystal thought time in Mexico. ~Donovan

Cool!

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There is a growing tendancy to think of Man as a rational, thinking being, which is absurd.- Marvin the Martian.

It's gotten to the point where careful investigation is needed just to tell parody from reality. I think that means reality is broken.- Noclevername.

That close to the sun, I would think Vulcanoids would be the opposite of cool.

According to the article I linked, MESSENGER should be able to detect vulcanoids 15 km or greater in diameter. I wonder how many [if they exist] are smaller than that, however.

And considering vulcanoids [if they exist] are obviously between M and Sol, there'd be little [angled-away] to no albedo to search for/attempt to detect towards confirmation/discovery.

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There in the valley of Scorpio, beneath the Cross of jade
Smoking on the seashell pipe the gypsies had made
We sat and we dreamed a while...in that crystal thought time in Mexico. ~Donovan

Messenger is passing through its 9th aphelion today. It will pass this way again on the 1st of August.

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Keeper of the Jabberwock

Nine orbits down, little more than six to go.

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Keeper of the Jabberwock

The next time Messenger is this area of the solar system, we will be eagerly waiting for the release of pictures from the recent encounter.

For now, this is merely Messenger having passed its 10th perihelion.

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Keeper of the Jabberwock

For which I am eagerly awaiting... but not as eagerly as I'm waiting for the images following orbital insertion a couple years later.

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Forming opinions as we speak

Boston.com Big Picture does MESSENGER & Mercury

Awesome pictures, as usual.

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I was on vacation the last few weeks and didn't get a chance to post this in a timely manner:

MESSENGER has passed the 3/4 time mark until orbit insertion. It did so on 22 June.

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Keeper of the Jabberwock

From an orbital mechanics standpoint, I find it interesting how Venus and Mercury probes have to actually lose orbital velocity (in relation to the sun) in their Hohmann transfer orbits. When they leave the Earth they go in the opposite direction from the outer planet probes. With the orbital velocity of the Earth at about 6,000 miles per hour the probe has to reduce it to "fall" in towards the Sun.

Missed it over the weekend. On the first of the month, Messenger started falling toward a rendezvous with Mercury. Expect much excitement on 29 September.

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Keeper of the Jabberwock

This is the kind of stuff that makes life worth living.
cant wait to see some close up's of mercury.

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Signature? Why?

Orbit #10 is now complete. Messenger has completed 2/3 of the orbits until it is permanently around Mercury.

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Keeper of the Jabberwock

Heads up about a simulated flyby that JPL has released. Less than six days until flyby 3.

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Keeper of the Jabberwock

BA says: MESSENGER: Three days out from Mercury

dmuller's realtime page here.

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"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" -- Charles Darwin
"Your right to hold an opinion is not being contested. Your expectation that it be taken seriously is." -- Jason Thompson
Meet the OOONG TOE.

Mercury is calling...

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I want to go back to the moon.
I don't care which rocket you use, whichever one you pick, I'll like it, I swear.
"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
Rovers forever! - ToSeek

Hey, I was just wondering what kind of rocket they used to put MESSENGER in orbit, and if it was the most cost-effective choice at the time and how hard it would be to make it man-rated...

Just kidding. I don't care.

(Wikipedia: The Boeing Delta II rocket carrying MESSENGER lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida at 02:15:56 EDT on August 3, 2004.)

About 24-1/2 hours to flyby

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Thanks for that link slang!

About 17 hours to go.

--Dennis

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Your theory is crazy, but it's not crazy enough to be true. -- Niels Bohr --

Ipsa scientia potestas est. ~ Knowledge itself is power.---- Bacon
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Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit.


Hint: this is at heart a scientific forum, and underneath the fooling around there are some diamond-hard minds hanging about, ready to tear you to shreads. -- mike alexander --

Ten hours until close approach.

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Keeper of the Jabberwock

When will the first pictures arrive?

I know less than half the surface of Mercury was photographed during the Marina 10 flybys. Is MESSENGER the first attempt to correct that oversight?

The Solar System Simulator (SSS) came back online just in time for the flyby, though I think they are not using the latest trajectory data either. I had to twist mine a little to make it match closest approach distance and time. The latest trajectory files I could find are about 6 months old, 1 hours and 28 km off the published flyby figures ... I believe the SSS is using the same data.

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Daniel
Spaceflight resources to share: Real-time simulations

They're in now. Not much to look at, but.... it's Mercury.
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/

Very Soon.

From the WIKI article on MESSENGER.

But MESSENGER has already made two previous flyby's of Mercury, and imaged some parts of it never imaged before.

ETA: 7 Hours 36 Minutes to go.

--Dennis

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Your theory is crazy, but it's not crazy enough to be true. -- Niels Bohr --

Ipsa scientia potestas est. ~ Knowledge itself is power.---- Bacon
--------
Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit.


Hint: this is at heart a scientific forum, and underneath the fooling around there are some diamond-hard minds hanging about, ready to tear you to shreads. -- mike alexander --

45 minutes to closest approach

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Messenger has flown by Mercury. It is now time (finally!) to do the countdown until orbital insertion on 18 March 2011.

534 days and a few minutes under 12 hours.

It will do 5 orbits of about 107 days each. Mercury will do 6 orbits of about 88 days each.

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Keeper of the Jabberwock

Planetary Societ Blog: A little drama during the MESSENGER Mercury flyby

The signal was reacquired.

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