[meteorite-list] NASA Extends MESSENGER Mission

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:45:50 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201111150045.pAF0jopT019072_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=188

MESSENGER Mission News
November 14, 2011

NASA Extends MESSENGER Mission

NASA has announced that it will extend the MESSENGER mission for an
additional year of orbital operations at Mercury beyond the planned end
of the primary mission on March 17, 2012. The MESSENGER probe became the
first spacecraft to orbit the innermost planet on March 18, 2011.

"We are still ironing out the funding details, but we are pleased to be
able to support the continued exploration of Mercury," said NASA
MESSENGER Program Scientist Ed Grayzeck, who made the announcement on
November 9, 2011, at the 24th meeting of the MESSENGER Science Team in
Annapolis, Md.

The spacecraft's unprecedented orbital science campaign is providing the
first global close-up of Mercury and has revolutionized scientific
perceptions of that planet. The extended mission will allow scientists
to learn even more about the planet closest to the Sun, says MESSENGER
Principal investigator Sean Solomon, of the Carnegie Institution of
Washington.

"During the extended mission we will spend more time close to the planet
than during the primary mission, we'll have a broader range of
scientific objectives, and we'll be able to make many more targeted
observations with our imaging system and other instruments," says
Solomon. "MESSENGER will also be able to view the innermost planet as
solar activity continues to increase toward the next maximum in the
solar cycle. Mercury's responses to the changes in its environment over
that period promise to yield new surprises."

The extended mission has been designed to answer six scientific
questions, each of which has arisen only recently as a result of
discoveries made from orbit:

   1. What are the sources of surface volatiles on Mercury?

   2. How late into Mercury's history did volcanism persist?

   3. How did Mercury's long-wavelength topography change with time?

   4. What is the origin of localized regions of enhanced exospheric
      density at Mercury?

   5. How does the solar cycle affect Mercury's exosphere and volatile
      transport?

   6. What is the origin of Mercury's energetic electrons?

"Advancements in science have at their core the evaluation of hypotheses
in the light of new knowledge, sometimes resulting in slight changes in
course, and other times resulting in paradigm shifts, opening up
entirely new vistas of thought and perception," says MESSENGER Project
Scientist Ralph McNutt, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics
Laboratory in Laurel, Md. "With the early orbital observations at
Mercury we are already seeing the beginnings of such advancements. The
extended mission guarantees that the best is indeed 'yet to be' on the
MESSENGER mission, as this old-world Mercury, seen in a very new light,
continues to give up its secrets."
------------------------------------------------------------------------

MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and
Ranging) is a NASA-sponsored scientific investigation of the planet
Mercury and the first space mission designed to orbit the planet closest
to the Sun. The MESSENGER spacecraft launched on August 3, 2004, and
after flybys of Earth, Venus, and Mercury will start a yearlong study of
its target planet in March 2011. Dr. Sean C. Solomon, of the Carnegie
Institution of Washington, leads the mission as Principal Investigator.
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory built and operates
the MESSENGER spacecraft and manages this Discovery-class mission for NASA.
Received on Mon 14 Nov 2011 07:45:50 PM PST