MESSENGER, MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging, was an unmanned NASA and APL spacecraft.[7] It was orbiting and studying the planet Mercury.[7] Its mission lasted 10 years, 8 months and 28 days.

It was launched on August 3, 2004[7][8] at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It was aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket.[8] After launch, the probe did several fly-bys and deep space manoeuvres to gain the right trajectory and speed.[7]

It completed 30% mapping of Mercury on January 14, 2008. MESSENGER made one more pass by Mercury in 2009, and on March 18, 2011 began to orbit Mercury.[7][9] 100% mapping was completed in March 2013 and the probe continued its studies. On April 30, 2015, it crashed into Mercury. It crashed near the crater Janáček.

References

  1. ↑ "NASA extends spacecraft's Mercury mission". UPI. November 15, 2011. Retrieved December 20, 2012.
  2. ↑ Wu, Brian (April 3, 2015). "NASA Set to Extend Mercury Mission for Another Month". Johns Hopkins University APL. The Science Times. Retrieved April 4, 2015.
  3. ↑ "MESSENGER's Operations at Mercury Extended". Johns Hopkins University APL. SpaceRef.com. April 3, 2015. Retrieved April 4, 2015.[permanent dead link]
  4. ↑ "Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration".
  5. ↑ Domingue, D.L.; Russell, C.T. (2007). Messenger mission to Mercury (1st ed.). New York: Springer. pp. 225–245. ISBN 9780387772141.
  6. ↑ Lee, Jimmy; Galuska, Mike (March 18, 2011). "NASA Chats – MESSENGER Prepares to Orbit Mercury". NASA. Archived from the original on June 7, 2011. Retrieved March 18, 2011.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 How it works book of amazing technology : everything you need to know about the world's best tech. Bournemouth: Imagine Pub. 2011. pp. 48–49. ISBN 978-1-908222-08-4. OCLC 784550467.
  8. 1 2 "Launch Coverage: MESSENGER Mission". NASA. Archived from the original on 2011-08-04. Retrieved 2011-07-30.
  9. ↑ Murchie, Scott L.; Vervack Jr., Ronald J.; Anderson, Brian J. (March 2011), "Journey to the Innermost Planet", Scientific American, vol. 304, no. 3, New York, pp. 26–31, Bibcode:2011SciAm.304c..34M, doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0311-34, PMID 21438487


source: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/MESSENGER