4/29/15 9:01 AM

But am constantly amazed at space science engineering. I did not know about this mission and how JPL /NASA was able to engineer the craft to deal with such a hostile environment

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/apr/29/nasa-spacecraft-to-impact-planet-mercury-on/

4/29/15 11:20 AM

We are branched out...

<img src="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3eFDYkRbnfM/maxresdefault.jpg" width=584 >


Makes we wonder when we may have to start collecting or laser blasting the orbital real estate to make room for new infrastructure.

4/29/15 1:10 PM

This video montage of images the spacecraft has captured during its four years of orbiting (plus some simulated video of the spacecraft) is interesting
http://www.space.com/29244-messenger-is-dead-long-live-its-mercury-imagery-video.html

Sparky, low-earth orbit space is getting junky. There have been proposals to do some cleanup. It's not a simple technical or financial challenge --blasting stuff would just make more but smaller pieces, usually.

4/29/15 1:19 PM

Rick, the folks at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory might be a little miffed at you giving credit to JPL. JPL is one of many subcontractors, but the spacecraft was designed and built, and the mission managed, by Hopkins.

4/29/15 1:24 PM

Looking at the picture I put in that previous post, my imagination thought of the rings of Saturn being the remnants of a previous millions years old race's SATS. ;) Too much Star Wars/Trek in my head I think. ;)


Not cycling related, but perhaps re-cycling related ??

4/29/15 7:38 PM

It took some pretty good shielding and constant maneuvering of the probe to keep the shield toward the sun. Mercury is the densest planet, and to slam into it we find out just how dense it is.

It is pretty cool, but most folks don't realize that the planet density goes down as you move away from the sun. Just like solids in blood when it gets spun in a centrifuge. This is phenomenon is not totally perfect but it pretty much holds true.

What we found out was Mercury is very much like our Moon; in fact in my astronomy classes they were grouped together in many of the lectures.