MESSENGER
Sign in to saveMESSENGER was a NASA robotic space probe that orbited the planet Mercury between 2011 and 2015, studying Mercury's chemical composition, geology, and magnetic field. The name is a backronym for Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging, and a reference to the messenger god Mercury from Roman mythology.
AI overview
MESSENGER was a NASA spacecraft that orbited Mercury from 2011 to 2015, collecting detailed scientific data about the planet's composition, surface features, and magnetic properties. The mission helped scientists better understand one of the least-explored planets in our solar system by gathering information that would have been impossible to obtain from Earth.
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Key facts
- Spaceflight.name
- MESSENGER
- Spaceflight.image
- MESSENGER - spacecraft at mercury - atmercury lg.jpg
- Spaceflight.image_caption
- Artist's rendering of MESSENGER orbiting Mercury
- Spaceflight.insignia
- MESSENGER mission emblem.png
- Spaceflight.mission_type
- Mercury orbiter
- Spaceflight.operator
- NASA
- Spaceflight.COSPAR_ID
- 2004-030A
- Spaceflight.SATCAT
- 28391
- Spaceflight.manufacturer
- Applied Physics Laboratory
- Spaceflight.power
- 450 watts
- Spaceflight.launch_date
- UTC
- Spaceflight.launch_rocket
- Delta II 7925H-9.5
Article
35 sectionsContents
- Mission overview
- Mission background
- Previous missions
- Proposals for the mission
- Objectives
- Spacecraft design
- Attitude control and propulsion
- Communications
- Power
- Computer and software
- Scientific instruments
- Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
- Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (GRS)
- [[Neutron spectrometer|Neutron Spectrometer]] (NS)
- [[X-ray spectroscopy|X-Ray Spectrometer]] (XRS)
- [[Magnetometer]] (MAG)
- Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA)
- Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer (MASCS)
- Energetic Particle and Plasma Spectrometer (EPPS)
- Radio Science (RS)
- Mission profile
- Launch and trajectory
- Earth flyby
- Two Venus flybys
- Three Mercury flybys
- Orbital insertion
- Primary science
- Extended mission
- Discovery of water, organic compounds and volcanism
- Solar System portrait
- View of a total lunar eclipse
- End of mission
- See also
- References
- External links
MESSENGER was a NASA robotic space probe that orbited the planet Mercury between 2011 and 2015, studying Mercury's chemical composition, geology, and magnetic field. The name is a backronym for Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging, and a reference to the messenger god Mercury from Roman mythology.
MESSENGER was launched aboard a Delta II rocket in August 2004. Its path involved a complex series of flybys – the spacecraft flew by Earth once, Venus twice, and Mercury itself three times, allowing it to decelerate relative to Mercury using minimal fuel. During its first flyby of Mercury in January 2008, MESSENGER became the second mission, after Mariner 10 in 1975, to reach Mercury.