Earth from Messenger
NASA's Messenger spacecraft made a successful Earth flyby this week, getting a gravity boost that will propel it into the inner solar system. This maneuver put it on course towards Venus, where it'll get another gravity assist to put it on track towards its final destination: Mercury. It won't get into a final, stable orbit around the closest planet to the Sun until 2011. Messenger took several photographs of the Earth as it came by, using this opportunity to calibrate its scientific equipment. (From UniverseToday.com)
posted by Zosia A. C. Krusberg at
5:54 PM
2 Comments:
But why doesn't it go straight to Mercury instead of the circuitous route (covering the 4.9 billion miles) it will take?
Oops, sorry! Found it:
Since it is technologically infeasible to fly straight to Mercury (a trip that would take a few months), the spacecraft must swing once past Earth, twice past Venus and three times past Mercury before slowing down enough to slip into orbit around Mercury.
Zosh, check this out:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/directory/Science/Physics
Also, what are your sources for all this info? Any cool science sites I can use as resources for bio?
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