PDS: The Planetary Atmospheres Node
Mapping Mercury - JHUAPL/NASA
The MESSENGER Mission
The spacecraft was launched in August 2004. It completed one flyby of Earth, two of Venus, and three of Mercury before entering an orbit around Mercury in March 2011. The prime mission was successful and the mission was extended to April 30, 2015.
References Helpful in Scoping the Mission
Understanding the Instrument and Archived Data
UVVS - Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer
VIRS - Visible Infrared Spectrograph
MDIS - Mercury Dual Imaging System
MLA - Mercury Laser Altimeter
RSS - Radio Science
MAG - Magnetometer
EPPS - Energetic Particles and Plasma Spectrometer
XRS - X-Ray Spectrometer
GRS - Gamma Ray Spectrometer
NS - Neutron Spectrometer
Other Useful Products for Interpreting the Data
Publications A listing of team members to facilitate literature searches
SPICE - Archived Juno SPICE ancillary data providing observation geometry (positions, orientations, instrument pointing, time conversions, etc.) are available from the PDS NAIF Node.
The spacecraft was launched in August 2004. It completed one flyby of Earth, two of Venus, and three of Mercury before entering an orbit around Mercury in March 2011. The prime mission was successful and the mission was extended to April 30, 2015.
| Mission Phases | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start time | End time | ||||||
| Phase Name | Date (DOY) | Date (DOY) | Operations & Targets | ||||
| Iau | Launch | 03 Aug 2004 (216) | 12 Sep 2004 (256) | Calibration | |||
| eac | Earth Cruise | 13 Sep 2004 (257) | 18 Jul 2005 (199) | Calibration | |||
| eaf | Earth Flyby | 19 Jul 2005 (200) | 16 Aug 2005 (228) | Earth(2)/Moon(17), Calibration | |||
| vc1 | Venus 1 Cruise | 17 Aug 2005 (229) | 09 Oct 2006 (282) | Calibration, Vega, Fomalhaut, Sirius | |||
| Venus 1 Flyby | 10 Oct 2006 (283) | 07 Nov 2006 (311) | |||||
| vc2 | Venus 2 Cruise | 08 Nov 2006 (312) | 22 May 2007 (142) | Spica, Sirius, Space, Venus | |||
| vf2 | Venus 2 Flyby | 23 May 2007 (143) | 20 Jun 2007 (171) | Venus | |||
| mc1 | Mercury 1 Cruise | 21 Jun 2007 (172) | 30 Dec 2007 (364) | Calibration, Sirius, Alpha_Ori, Space | |||
| mf1 | Mercury 1 Flyby | 31 Dec 2007 (365) | 28 Jan 2008 (28) | Mercury, Space | |||
| mc2 | Mercury 2 Cruise | 29 Jan 2008 (029) | 21 Sep 2008 (265) | Fomalhaut, Calibration, Dirus Dark Sky | |||
| mf1 | Mercury 2 Flyby | 22 Sep 2008 (266) | 20 Oct 2008 (294) | Space, Mercury,Sirius, Lyman Alpha | |||
| mc3 | Mercury 3 Cruise | 21 Oct 2008 (295) | 15 Sep 2009 (258) | Sirius, Calibration, Dark Sky, Venus, Space | |||
| Alpha_Ori. Fomalhaut, Arcturus, Mercury | |||||||
| mf1 | Mercury 3 Flyby | 16 Sep 2009 (259) | 14 Oct 2009 (287) | Mercury, Space | |||
| mc4 | Mercury 4 Cruise | 15 Oct 2009 (288) | 03 Mar 2011 (062) | Venus, Alphs_Ori, Sirius, Space | |||
| Spica, Calibration, Vega | |||||||
| orb | Mercury Orbit | 04 Mar 2011 (063) | 17 Mar 2012 (077) | Mercury, Sirius | |||
| ob2 | Mercury Orbit Year 2 | 18 Mar 2012 (078) | 17 Mar 2013 (076) | Mercury | |||
| ob3 | Mercury Orbit Year 3 | 18 Mar 2013 (077) | 17 Mar 2014 (076) | Mercury | |||
| ob4 | Mercury Orbit Year 4 | 18 Mar 2014 (077) | 17 Mar 2015 (076) | Mercury | |||
| ob5 | Mercury Orbit Year 5 | 18 Mar 2015 (077) | 30 Apr 2015 (120) | Mercury | |||
| Beginning of Mercury Years | |||||
| 1 | 4-Mar-11 | 7 | 24-Aug-12 | 13 | 3-Feb-14 |
| 2 | 12-Jun-11 | 8 | 20-Nov-12 | 14 | 2-May-14 |
| 3 | 8-Sep-11 | 9 | 16-Feb-13 | 15 | 29-Jul-14 |
| 4 | 5-Dec-11 | 10 | 15-May-13 | 16 | 25-Oct-14 |
| 5 | 1-Mar-12 | 11 | 11-Aug-13 | 17 | 21-Jan-15 |
| 6 | 28-May-12 | 12 | 7-Nov-13 | 18 | 19-Apr-15 |
References Helpful in Scoping the Mission
A Mission Description
A Spacecraft Description
A list of pertinent references
See Mission Overview Solomon, S.C.; McNutt R.L.; Gold, R.E.; Domingue, D.L., MESSENGER
Mission Overview, Space Science Reviews, Volume 131, Issue 1-4, pp 3–39|, 2007.
A Spacecraft Description
A list of pertinent references
See Mission Overview Solomon, S.C.; McNutt R.L.; Gold, R.E.; Domingue, D.L., MESSENGER
Mission Overview, Space Science Reviews, Volume 131, Issue 1-4, pp 3–39|, 2007.
Understanding the Instrument and Archived Data
UVVS - Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer
VIRS - Visible Infrared Spectrograph
MDIS - Mercury Dual Imaging System
MLA - Mercury Laser Altimeter
RSS - Radio Science
MAG - Magnetometer
EPPS - Energetic Particles and Plasma Spectrometer
XRS - X-Ray Spectrometer
GRS - Gamma Ray Spectrometer
NS - Neutron Spectrometer
Other Useful Products for Interpreting the Data
Publications A listing of team members to facilitate literature searches
SPICE - Archived Juno SPICE ancillary data providing observation geometry (positions, orientations, instrument pointing, time conversions, etc.) are available from the PDS NAIF Node.
