MESSENGER Executes Successful Flyby Test

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_roo..._07_05_05.html

MESSENGER Status Report: MESSENGER Executes Successful Flyby Test
July 5 ,2005

On June 28, the MESSENGER team successfully tested the spacecraft and
instrument commands planned for the Aug. 2 flyby of Earth - the gravity
assist that starts the next leg of the spacecraft's journey toward
Mercury. The Earth flyby will send the spacecraft toward Venus. The
first of two Venus flybys is planned for October 2006.

The test involved a 180-degree rotation to turn MESSENGER's sunshade
toward the Sun; then five hours and 40 minutes of activities involving
three instruments - the Magnetometer, the Mercury Atmospheric and
Surface Composition Spectrometer, and the Mercury Dual Imaging System.
Another 180-degree rotation returned the spacecraft back to the
sunshade-away-from-Sun orientation.

On the basis of this rehearsal of spacecraft activities planned near
the
Earth flyby, mission controllers at the Johns Hopkins University
Applied
Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, will make minor
corrections to the final Earth flyby commands sent to the spacecraft.
These corrections will maximize the quality of the science data
collected for the flyby. In the coming weeks, the MESSENGER team will
create the final Earth flyby command sequences, as well as perform
additional simulations and reviews.

MESSENGER Fellows Visit APL

Several teachers from the MESSENGER Educator Fellows Program visited
APL
on June 30 to learn more about the mission's preparations for the Earth
flyby. The program is a nationwide teacher training initiative whereby
a
cadre of 30 fellows - master science teachers at the elementary, middle
and high school levels - will conduct educator workshops nationally,
training up to 27,000 pre-K through grade 12 educators over the life of
the mission.

These fellows are taught concept-based, inquiry-driven lessons
developed
by the MESSENGER education team. Forming the core of the MESSENGER
Education Modules, these standards-based lessons address solar system
science, planetary observations through history and the engineering
associated with building and sending a spacecraft to another world.
More
information on these programs is available on the MESSENGER Education
Web page http://btc.montana.edu/messenger/teachers/fellows.htm.

Where Is MESSENGER?

Now you can follow MESSENGER's journey through the inner solar system
without leaving your computer! The new "Where is MESSENGER?"
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/whereis/index.php offers detailed,
simulated views of the spacecraft's current orbit; MESSENGER's location
in the solar system; and what Earth and Mercury look like from
MESSENGER's current perspective.

Stat Corner: MESSENGER is about 90.8 million miles (146.1 million
kilometers) from the Sun and 6.2 million miles (10 million kilometers)
from Earth. At that distance, a signal from Earth reaches the
spacecraft
in 33.5 seconds. The spacecraft is moving around the Sun at 68,167
miles
(109,704 kilometers) per hour. MESSENGER's onboard computers have
executed 58,596 commands from mission operators since launch on Aug 3,
2004.