Comments on: MESSENGER survives Venus

By: Astrolink [Global Edition] » Venus tosses MESSENGER on its way | Latest astronomy news in 11 languages

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 21:30:08 +0000

[...] Just as it did last October, the MESSENGER spacecraft on its way to the planet Mercury is about to get a gravitational assist from Venus today. [...]

By: Troy

Troy — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 06:11:34 +0000

BA you’re the boy who can’t wait for christmas or Mercury. But I have good news, orbital insertion is indeed 5 freaking years away but sort of like a trailer to a hot and well lit movie a slew of Mercury flybys will occur prior to insertion the first one in Jan 2008 which is a mere 15 months away.

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/the_mission/trajectory.html

By: CR

CR — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 17:57:50 +0000

That’s it, I’m leaving!

By: Stuart

Stuart — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 09:10:18 +0000

But Mr Ansorge, don’t you know, nukes are BAD! (As are carbohydrates in food, mercury in vaccines, and any hint of critical thought.) We can’t have BAD things in space!

Life is so much simpler if you can just divide everything into good vs. bad, black vs. white. Who needs all that grey of complexity, anyway?

Am I rambling off topic? Sorry.

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 14:58:38 +0000

So, how’s the research going on high thrust, plasma rockets? When do we get going with some REAL space ships. Better living thru chemistry is cool, but I keep waiting for NUKES IN SPACE. AKA Phoenix, etc.

Gary 7

By: Chip

Chip — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 08:33:32 +0000

BA wrote: “…there are four more such maneuvers to do, and 5 frakking years to wait before it gets to Mercury…”

Gosh, Jim Kirk would just hit impulse drive and the Enterprise would hop from Venus to Mercury in 3 minutes…oh…um…I forgot, this is a real spacecraft! (;

By: Derek Rodgers

Derek Rodgers — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 03:49:12 +0000

I loved contact. My favorite movie of all time.

So, I must correct you, Phil. It was “Small moves, Ellie.”

By: Dan Gerhards

Dan Gerhards — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 03:14:13 +0000

There won’t be any images because the spacecraft was behind the sun at the time making communication nearly impossible. They didn’t want to make the encounter more difficult than absolutely necessary because they couldn’t fix anything that went wrong. Drat. NEXT time, there will be pictures.

By: Grand Lunar

Grand Lunar — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 01:36:48 +0000

Are there going to be any images of the Venus encounter? I’d be curious to see their preformance at that planet (I know they did good for Earth).

So, Mercury itself is the next stop for manuevers? Wonder if that’ll give us a preview of the actual mission.

This is SO cool; STEREO going up Wendsday, GLAST getting an October launch in 2007, and MESSENGER doing fine on it’s way to the Iron planet.

By: ioresult

ioresult — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 00:08:10 +0000

“5 frakking years”

OH YEAH!

“they look like us; there are many copies”
hehehe