MESSENGER

 2004-030A

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Selected as Discovery mission 1999 Jul.

The Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging mission will be a Mercury orbiter (S. Solomon/Carnegie-DC). Built and managed by APL with SOC at APL.

Mass 1130 kg, 513 kg dry. Spacecraft is 1.42m tall, 1.85m wide and 1.27m deep with a 2.5 x 2.0m front-mounted sunshade and a 6.0-m span pair of solar panels, and 3.6-m mag boom.

MESSENGER will study the geology of Mercury's surface, its magnetic field, and its gravity field.

The initial insertion was about 2 sigma off; target insertion B-plane miss for Earth-1 was about 0.2M km but actual value was 2.3Mkm (OD003, Williams et al 2005). Hence, the third stage did not reenter the Earth gravisphere during Earth-1.

 

Messenger
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
2004 Aug 3	0615:56	Launch by Delta 7925H	CC SLC17B
		T+1:21 SRM 1-6 sep 25 km
		T+2:40 SRM 7-9 sep 67 km
	0620:20	T+4:24 MECO 114.7 km
		Thor sep
	0620:33	T+4:37 SES-1 121 km 6.1 km/s rel
	0620	T+4:41 9.5-foot fairing sep 122.9 km 6.2 km/s rel
	0624:45	T+8:49 SECO-1 169.2 km 7.404 km/s rel	165 x 169 x 32.44
	0701:57	T+46:01 SES-2
	0704:48	T+48:52 SECO-2	156 x 7661 x 32.49
	0705:31	T+49:35 Stage 2 sep
	0706:10	T+50:14 TES
	0707:35	T+51:39 TECO 260.3 km 11.297 km/srel
		T+56:39 Yo-yo despin
	0712:39	T+56:43 Stage 3 sep
	0756	T+1:40:00 SES-3
	0756	T+1:40:24 SECO-3 depletion	171.38 158 x 7529 x 32.2
	0810		190 x -61706 x 32.7
	1459	Pass EL1:4
	1900		194 x -61724 x 32.7
2004 Aug 4	0600	Pass lunar orbit
2004 Aug 5	1800	Leave Earth SOI
2004 Aug 7	0758	Depart Earth sphere 1.5Mkm
2004 Aug 9	2300		365.93d 0.9248 x 1.076 AU x 6.40
2004 Aug 24	2100:00	TCM-1 3:36, 18m/s
2004 Sep 24	1600:00	TCM-2 62s 4.6m/s
2004 Nov 18	1930	TCM-3 48s 3.2m/s, reduce vel
2005 Jun 10			365.35d 0.9234 x 1.0769 AU x 6.35
2005 Jun 23	1430	TCM-5 1.1m/s 174s
2005 Jul 21	1800	TCM-6 0.1m/s 23s
2005 Jul 29	1835	Enter Earth Sphere 1.5Mkm
2005 Jul 31	0800	Enter Earth SOI
2005 Aug 1	2000	Pass lunar orbit
2005 Aug 2	1913	Earth-1 flyby 2347 km over Mongolia	2336 x -63487 x 133.1
2005 Aug 3	1800	Pass lunar orbit
2005 Aug 5	0600	Leave Earth SOI
2005 Aug 6	1955	Depart Earth Sphere 1.5Mkm
2005 Aug 29			265.63d 0.6022 x 1.0152AU x 2.53
2005 Dec 12	1130	DSM-1 (TCM-9) 524s burn, 100 kg, 316 m/s
2006 Feb 23	1600	TCM-10 1.4 m/s 2min burn
2006 Sep 12	2300	TCM-11A 1.7m/s 240s
	2310	TCM-11B 202s burn
2006 Oct 5	2230:00	TCM-12 0.5m/s 58s
2006 Oct 23	0207	Enter Venus sphere 1.008Mkm
2006 Oct 23	1400?	Enter Venus SOI
2006 Oct 24	0834	Venus-1 flyby 2990 km altitude
			2986 x -23046 x 116.51
2006 Oct 25	0300?	Leave Venus SOI
2006 Oct 25	1503	Depart Venus sphere 1.008Mkm
2006 Nov 12			224.72d 0.5455 x 0.9013AU x 7.96
2006 Dec 2	2100	TCM-13a 1670s (Tot TCM-13 is 25.6m/s)
	2200	TCM-13b 97s
2006 Dec 3	0300	TCM-13c 1640s
2007 Apr 25	1730	TCM-15 0.6m/s
2007 May 25	1600	TCM-16 0.2m/s
2007 Jun 4	1639	Enter V sphere 1.008Mkm
2007 Jun 5	2308:19	Venus-2 flyby 338 km (or 313 km)	338 x -20430 x 159.75
2007 Jun 7	0540	Depart V sphere
2007 Oct 17	2200	DSM-2 (TCM-18A), 5min 70 kg 226 m/s
	2230	DSM-2 (TCM-18B) small correction
2007 Dec 19	2200	TCM-19 1:51 1.1m/s
2008 Jan 14	0934	Enter Mercury sphere at 201498 km
2008 Jan 14	1350	Enter Mercury SOI
2008 Jan 14	1904:39	Mercury-1 flyby 2640 km C/A	200 x -6388 x 4.99
2008 Jan 15	0025	Leave Mercury SOI
2008 Jan 15	0429	Depart Mercury sphere at 198985 km
2008 Feb		Solar orbit cruise: 3 M-years, 2 probe orbits
2008 Mar 19		DSM-3 2.5min 72m/s 21 kg
2008 Jun 5		Fast earth-rel vel of 90.92 km/s
2008 Oct 5	2222	Enter M sphere at 196378 km
2008 Oct 6	0840:20s	Mercury-2 flyby 2640 km C/A	199 x -6722 x 0.85
2008 Oct 6	1852	Depart M sphere at 193789 km
2008 Nov		Solar orbit cruise: 4 M-years, 3 probe orbits
2008 Dec 4	2030	DSM-4a (TCM-29a) 219m/s 4.5min
2008 Dec 8	2030	DSM-4b 24.7m/s
2009 May 10			117.68 0.3096 x 0.6304 AU x 6.99
2009 Sep 29	0741	Enter M sphere at 179899 km
2009 Sep 29	1310	Enter Mercury sphere
	2156	M3 flyby 228 km	228 x -8959 x 0.33
2009 Sep 30	0640	Leave Mercury sphere
2009 Sep 30	1200	Leave Mercury sphere at 178006 km
2009 Oct		Solar orbit cruise: 6 M-years, 5 probe orbits
2009 Nov 24			104.80d 0.3028 x 0.5672 AU x 7.01
2009 Nov 24	2145:00	DSM-5 (TCM-35) 177.75m/s
	2149:10	DSM-5 off
2009 Nov 30			105.71d 0.3079 x 0.5672 AU x 7.03 deg
2011 Mar 17	0423	Enter M sphere 175230 km
2011 Mar 18		Mercury-4 approach	269 x -14261 x 79.94
2011 Mar 18		Mercury-4, orbit insertion
	0045	MOI-1 (TCM-43) 14 min, 180 kg prop.
	0100	MOI-1 complete 861.63m/s
	0647	Apogee 1
	1248?	Perigee 1
	1848	Apogee 2
			207 x 15261 x 82.5
2011 Jun 14			492 x 14882 x 82.9
2011 Jun 15	1940	OCM-1 Lower periapsis, TCM 15s, 28m/s	200 x 14867 x 83.0
2011 Jul 26			12.00h
2011 Jul 26	2104	OCM-2 Tweak apogee 4.1m/s 3.1min	11.80h
2011 Aug 1			320 x 15066 x 83.2
2011 Sep 7			12.00h 470 x
2011 Sep 7	1508	OCM-3 25.0m/s 11.76h 200 x
2011 Oct 24			11.76h
	2211	OCM-4 4.2m/s	12.00h
2011 Dec			12.00h 442 x
2011 Dec 5	1608	OCM-5 22.2m/s	11.79h 200 x
2012 Mar		End of main mission	11.79h 405 x
2012 Mar 3	0144	OCM-6 19.2m/s	11.60h 200 x
2012 Apr 12		Orbit period 11:36
2012 Apr 16	1913	OCM-7 Orbit adjust 188s 53.3m/s, oxi deplete
		Orbit period 9:05
2012 Apr 20	2305:35	OCM-8 Orbit adjust for extended mission,31.5 m/s
		Orbit period 8h	278 x 10314 x
2013 Mar 18		Periapse 450 km
2013 Dec		Periapse 300 km
2014 Mar 23		Periapse 200 km?
2014 Jun 17			114 x
2014 Jun 17	1453:42	OCM-9 5m/s	155.1 x
2014 Sep 12	1554	Periapse 25 km, start increase	24.3 x
2014 Sep 12		OCM-10 8.5 m/s	94 x
2014 Oct 21		CDM-161 0.004m/s
2014 Oct 24		Periapse 25 km
		OCM-11 19.3 m/s
2014 Oct 28		CDM-162 0.003m/s
2014 Nov 4		CDM-163 0.003m/s
2014 Nov 18		CDM-164 0.003m/s
2014 Dec 24		Peri 101 km
2015 Jan 21		Periapse 25 km
		OCM-12 9.7m/s to 80 km
2015 Mar 1		Periapse 15 km
2015 Mar 18			496.5 11.6 x 10932 x 83.1
2015 Mar 18	1500	OCM-13 33s 3.1m/s	497.6 34.5 x 10933 x 83.1
2015 Apr 2		497.6 5.5 x 10949 x 83.5
2015 Apr 2	2029:46	OCM-14 6.3min 3.11m/s	498.8 28.3 x 10942 x 83.4
2015 Apr 6			498.9 13.1 x 10980 x 83.4
2015 Apr 6	1614:06	OCM-15 6.3min 1.77m/s	499.4 25.7 x 10989 x 83.4
2015 Apr 8	1655:15	OCM-15A 5m 1.94m/s He pressurant mvr	500.3 29.1 x 10997 x 83.3
2015 Apr 14		6.5 x 11015 x 83.1
2015 Apr 14	1516	OCM-16 0.98m/s	500.7 12 x 11018 x 83.0
2015 Apr 28	0038	Periapse R = 2449 km h=9 km
2015 Apr 30	1108	Periapse h = 0 km	0 x 11001 x 83.3
2015 Apr 30	1926:02	Impact 54.4N 210.1E at 3.91 km/s	-3 x 11003 x 83.3

Payload:

• 667N Leros-1b (Ampac-ISP)

• 4 x 22N Aerojet MR-106E mono hydrazine thrusters, small burns.

• 12 x 4N Aerojet MR-111C thrusters

• MDIS Mercury Dual Imaging System;

  • Wide angle CCD imager, 10.5 deg FOV, 0.4-1.1 mu, 12 filters

  • Narrow angle CCD imager 1.5 deg FOV, 18m res, monochromatic

• GNRS Gamma ray and neutron spectrometer, with cryocooler

• XRS X-ray spectrometer, collimated gas counters, 1-10 keV

• MAG Magnetometer, 3-axis ring-core fluxgate, 50-ms time resolution.

• MLA Mercury Laser Altimeter, 30cm res, 1.06mu

• MASCS Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer, UV/Vis spectrometer and Vis/IR spectrograph.

• EPPS Energetic Particle and Plasma Spectrometer, with energetic particle spectrometer (EPS) and fast imaging plasma spectrometer (FIPS) for composition, energy and pitch angle for ions and electrons