Ron
September 27th 04, 06:16 PM
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/status_report_09_24_04.html
MESSENGER Status Report
September 24, 2004
Maneuver Keeps MESSENGER on Track
MESSENGER marked its 52nd day of flight operations with a burst from
its thrusters, completing a maneuver on Sept. 24 that kept it on
course for next summer's Earth flyby.
Carried out mostly by MESSENGER's four medium (5-pound) hydrazine-
fueled thrusters with a little help from 8 of its 12 small (1-
pound) thrusters the 62-second burn corrected the last
remaining trajectory errors from the spacecraft's Aug. 3 launch.
The short maneuver was a long-distance tap on the brakes, reducing
MESSENGER's velocity by about 10 miles an hour (4.6 meters per
second) relative to the Sun. MESSENGER is now more than 11.5 million
miles (18.5 million kilometers) from Earth, speeding through space
at 62,319 miles (100,292 kilometers) per hour.
At that distance radio signals reach Earth in just over a minute
meaning the burn, which started at 2 p.m. EDT, was effectively
over when mission operators at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics
Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, picked up MESSENGER's signals
through the NASA Deep Space Network tracking station near Madrid,
Spain.
MESSENGER is currently flying with its sunshade away from the Sun,
allowing it to keep its instruments and systems warm without using
power for heaters. The spacecraft is in good health and operating
normally; subsystem and instrument tests resume today when the
operations team turns on MESSENGER's instrument data processor
(DPU-A) and checks its interfaces with the Magnetometer, X-Ray
Spectrometer and Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition
Spectrometer.
Visit the Mission Design section for graphics and more details on
the trajectory correction maneuver. The next maneuver is planned for
Nov. 18.
MESSENGER Status Report
September 24, 2004
Maneuver Keeps MESSENGER on Track
MESSENGER marked its 52nd day of flight operations with a burst from
its thrusters, completing a maneuver on Sept. 24 that kept it on
course for next summer's Earth flyby.
Carried out mostly by MESSENGER's four medium (5-pound) hydrazine-
fueled thrusters with a little help from 8 of its 12 small (1-
pound) thrusters the 62-second burn corrected the last
remaining trajectory errors from the spacecraft's Aug. 3 launch.
The short maneuver was a long-distance tap on the brakes, reducing
MESSENGER's velocity by about 10 miles an hour (4.6 meters per
second) relative to the Sun. MESSENGER is now more than 11.5 million
miles (18.5 million kilometers) from Earth, speeding through space
at 62,319 miles (100,292 kilometers) per hour.
At that distance radio signals reach Earth in just over a minute
meaning the burn, which started at 2 p.m. EDT, was effectively
over when mission operators at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics
Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, picked up MESSENGER's signals
through the NASA Deep Space Network tracking station near Madrid,
Spain.
MESSENGER is currently flying with its sunshade away from the Sun,
allowing it to keep its instruments and systems warm without using
power for heaters. The spacecraft is in good health and operating
normally; subsystem and instrument tests resume today when the
operations team turns on MESSENGER's instrument data processor
(DPU-A) and checks its interfaces with the Magnetometer, X-Ray
Spectrometer and Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition
Spectrometer.
Visit the Mission Design section for graphics and more details on
the trajectory correction maneuver. The next maneuver is planned for
Nov. 18.