[meteorite-list] MESSENGER On Autopilot for Orbit Insertion

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2011 12:20:27 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201103161920.p2GJKRQs006212_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=160

MESSENGER Mission News
March 16, 2011

MESSENGER On Autopilot for Orbit Insertion

MESSENGER is now on autopilot, faithfully executing a detailed set of
instructions required to achieve its historic rendezvous with Mercury
tomorrow night.

At 8 a.m. Tuesday, all attitude re-orientations planned to control the
probe's momentum accumulation and adjust its trajectory were
successfully completed. MESSENGER turned to point its high-gain antenna
back to Earth for the final stretch of continuous data monitoring until
just before the start of Mercury orbit insertion.

The operations team at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics
Laboratory (APL), in Laurel, Md., has monitored on-board commanded
vehicle re-configurations and has sent pre-defined ground commands to
establish configurations for the burn.

The science instrument suite has recorded the last set of data for the
cruise portion of the mission, and all instruments have been turned off.
Although not in an operational mode, the Gamma-Ray Spectrometer has been
left in its stand-by mode to ensure thermal stability of the delicate
cryogenic cooler. The instruments will be tuned back on as part of
orbital commissioning beginning on March 23.

"The navigation team is reporting that there has been little change from
the previous targeting estimates, so the spacecraft is on the
glide-slope for final approach to Mercury," says MESSENGER Systems
Engineer Eric Finnegan.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 Wed 16 Mar 2011 03:20:27 PM PDT