From the August 2002 issue

MESSENGER’s path to Mercury

These animations show how NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft will get to Mercury.
By | Published: August 26, 2002 | Last updated on May 18, 2023

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • The Mariner 10 mission performed a flyby of Mercury on March 29, 1974, capturing images from a range of 60,000 kilometers.
  • The MESSENGER spacecraft, currently under development, is planned to be the first mission to achieve orbit around Mercury since Mariner 10's mid-1970s encounter.
  • Scheduled for a 2004 liftoff, MESSENGER's five-year trajectory to Mercury's orbit involves a series of gravitational assists, including two Venus flybys (2004, 2006) and two Mercury flybys (2007, 2008), to match the planet's high orbital speed.
  • The spacecraft is projected to enter Mercury's orbit on April 6, 2009, following its final engine firing, with its path and flybys illustrated by provided animations.
Key takeaways sponsored by The Space Store
Mercury
This mosaic shows Mercury as Mariner 10 sped away from it on March 29, 1974. The mosaic was made from over 140 individual frames taken about two hours after the encounter at a range of 37,300 miles (60,000 kilometers).
NASA/JPL/Northwestern University
Currently under development, the MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging) spacecraft will be the first to visit Mercury since Mariner 10 did in the mid-1970s.

Although Mercury lies just a hop, skip, and a jump from Earth, it will take MESSENGER five years to get there. The extended travel results because, to go into orbit around Mercury, the spacecraft must match the planet’s high orbital speed by taking advantage of several gravity assists along the way.

The current schedule calls for liftoff in 2004. Three months after launch, the spacecraft makes the first of two Venus flybys. Three more orbits around the sun bring MESSENGER back to Venus on March 16, 2006. The spacecraft, now moving much more rapidly, heads closer to the sun for two flybys of Mercury. The first occurs on July 21, 2007, and the second on April 11, 2008. The four planet flybys, in conjunction with two firings of the spacecraft’s onboard rocket, set MESSENGER up for its final approach to Mercury. It gets there on April 6, 2009, when it fires its engine once more to put it in orbit.

The animations below illustrate MESSENGER’s path from Earth to Mercury and its two Mercury flybys before the spacecraft goes into orbit around the planet.

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