"are restricted to viewing only a single illuminated hemisphere. In fact, unfortunately, even though Mariner 10 space probe flew past Mercury three times during 1974 and 1975, it observed the same area during each pass. This was because Mariner 10's orbital period was almost exactly 3 sidereal Mercury days, and the same face of the planet was lit at each of the close approaches. As a result, less than 45% of the planet’s surface was mapped. Earth-based observations are made difficult by Mercury's constant proximity to the Sun. This has several consequences: Like the Earth, Moon and Mars, Mercury's geologic"
"apertures. Care must be taken to ensure the instrument isn't pointed directly towards the Sun because of the risk for eye damage. This method bypasses the limitation of twilight observing when the ecliptic is located at a low elevation (e.g. on autumn evenings). Ground-based telescope observations of Mercury reveal only an illuminated partial disk with limited detail. The first of two spacecraft to visit the planet was , which mapped about 45% of its surface from 1974 to 1975. The second is the ""MESSENGER"" spacecraft, which after three Mercury flybys between 2008 and 2009, attained orbit around Mercury on March"
"the atmosphere, surface, and physical characteristics of Mercury and Venus. It was a low-cost mission completed for under $98 million. ""Mariner 10"" was launched at 12:45 am EST on November 3, 1973, from Cape Canaveral. Since Mercury is so close to the Sun it was too difficult to incorporate an orbit around Mercury in the route so ""Mariner 10"" orbited the Sun. In order to reach its destination, the satellite was accelerated with the gravity field of Venus. It then passed close to Mercury on March 29, 1974, as it flew towards the Sun. This was the first observation made"
"when fuel ran low. ""Mariner 10"" orbited the planets in the opposite direction of Earth's orbit. Mariner's first photographed images, which revealed Venus's dense cloud cover, reached NASA scientists in February 1974. Data collected by ""Mariner 10"" helped determine Venus's rotation period and use of Earth's magnetic field. Photos of Mercury revealed its cratered surface and its large scarps and plains. Research also recorded its radical temperature variations between night and day. The 10-cent ""Mariner 10"" commemorative stamp was issued on April 4, 1975, at Pasadena, California. It paid the domestic first-class rate for letters weighing less than a half"
"denser than ""Venera 4"" designers had anticipated. The joint ""Venera 4""–""Mariner 5"" data were analysed by a combined Soviet–American science team in a series of colloquia over the following year, in an early example of space cooperation. In 1974, ""Mariner 10"" swung by Venus on its way to Mercury and took ultraviolet photographs of the clouds, revealing the extraordinarily high wind speeds in the Venusian atmosphere. In 1975, the Soviet ""Venera 9"" and ""10"" landers transmitted the first images from the surface of Venus, which were in black and white. In 1982 the first colour images of the surface were"
"Mercury. MESSENGER Messenger (stylized as MESSENGER, a backronym for ""MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging""; the name is a reference to the messenger deity of the same name from Roman mythology) was a NASA robotic spacecraft that orbited the planet Mercury between 2011 and 2015. The probe was launched aboard a Delta II rocket in August 2004 to study Mercury's chemical composition, geology, and magnetic field. The instruments carried by ""MESSENGER"" were used on a complex series of flybys – the spacecraft flew by Earth once, Venus twice, and Mercury itself three times, allowing it to decelerate relative to"
"surface of Mercury and the Sun, and also it allowed the spacecraft to measure the effects of solar wind and the magnetic fields of the planet at various distances while still allowing close-up measurements and photographs of the surface and exosphere. ""MESSENGER"" performed an Earth flyby one year after launch, on August 2, 2005, with the closest approach at 19:13 UTC at an altitude of 2,347 kilometers (1,458 statute miles) over central Mongolia. On December 12, 2005, a 524-second-long burn (Deep-Space Maneuver or DSM-1) of the large thruster adjusted the trajectory for the upcoming Venus flyby. During the Earth flyby,"
"MESSENGER Messenger (stylized as MESSENGER, a backronym for ""MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging""; the name is a reference to the messenger deity of the same name from Roman mythology) was a NASA robotic spacecraft that orbited the planet Mercury between 2011 and 2015. The probe was launched aboard a Delta II rocket in August 2004 to study Mercury's chemical composition, geology, and magnetic field. The instruments carried by ""MESSENGER"" were used on a complex series of flybys – the spacecraft flew by Earth once, Venus twice, and Mercury itself three times, allowing it to decelerate relative to Mercury"
"1962 Mariner 2 flyby of Venus (closest approach 34,773 kilometers). The other planets were first flown by in 1965 for Mars by Mariner 4, 1973 for Jupiter by ""Pioneer 10"", 1974 for Mercury by Mariner 10, 1979 for Saturn by ""Pioneer 11"", 1986 for Uranus by ""Voyager 2"", 1989 for Neptune by ""Voyager 2"". In 2015, the dwarf planets Ceres and Pluto were orbited by ""Dawn"" and passed by ""New Horizons"", respectively. The first interplanetary surface mission to return at least limited surface data from another planet was the 1970 landing of Venera 7 on Venus which returned data to"
"field. Using a near-ultraviolet filter, it photographed Venus's chevron clouds and performed other atmospheric studies. The spacecraft flew past Mercury three times. Owing to the geometry of its orbit – its orbital period was almost exactly twice Mercury's – the same side of Mercury was sunlit each time, so it was only able to map 40–45% of Mercury’s surface, taking over 2,800 photos. It revealed a more or less Moon-like surface. It thus contributed enormously to our understanding of Mercury, whose surface had not been successfully resolved through telescopic observation. The regions mapped included most or all of the Shakespeare,"
"In the Borealis region, ""Mariner 10"" images are available for only the western hemisphere, from long 0° to about long 190° W. Mercury was in darkness beyond long 190° W. on March 29, 1974, when the first ""Mariner 10"" flyby acquired the most useful photographs of the region. Most of the photographs used for geologic mapping were acquired by the departing spacecraft during the first pass (Mercury I). The Mercury II encounter provided no usable images of the map area; two low-oblique photographs suitable for geologic mapping were acquired during the third flyby on March 17, 1975. No stereoscopic photographic"
"Mercury. To land safely or enter a stable orbit the spacecraft would rely entirely on rocket motors. Aerobraking is ruled out because Mercury has a negligible atmosphere. A trip to Mercury requires more rocket fuel than that required to escape the Solar System completely. As a result, only two space probes have visited it so far. A proposed alternative approach would use a solar sail to attain a Mercury-synchronous orbit around the Sun. The first spacecraft to visit Mercury was NASA's (1974–1975). The spacecraft used the gravity of Venus to adjust its orbital velocity so that it could approach Mercury,"
"to impact with the Moon, it instead missed its target and became the first artificial object to orbit the Sun. ""Mariner 2"" was the first planetary flyby, passing Venus in 1962. The first successful flyby of Mars was made by ""Mariner 4"" in 1965. ""Mariner 10"" first passed Mercury in 1974. The first probe to explore the outer planets was ""Pioneer 10"", which flew by Jupiter in 1973. ""Pioneer 11"" was the first to visit Saturn, in 1979. The ""Voyager"" probes performed a grand tour of the outer planets following their launch in 1977, with both probes passing Jupiter in"
"part of Mercury photographed by ""Mariner 10"", as well as on the Moon and Mars, they offer a potentially valuable basis for comparison between these planetary bodies. Basic information about the planetary surface of the Kuiper quadrangle is provided by three sequences of high-quality photographs designated Mercury I, II, and III, obtained during the incoming phases of three encounters of the ""Mariner 10"" spacecraft with Mercury. Mercury I includes 75 whole-frame photographs of the Kuiper quadrangle; Mercury II, 13 whole-frame photographs; and Mercury III, 70 quarter-frame photographs. The photographs include 19 stereopairs in the southern part of the quadrangle. The"
"Magellan (spacecraft) The Magellan spacecraft, also referred to as the Venus Radar Mapper, was a robotic space probe launched by NASA of the United States, on May 4, 1989, to map the surface of Venus by using synthetic aperture radar and to measure the planetary gravitational field. The ""Magellan"" probe was the first interplanetary mission to be launched from the Space Shuttle, the first one to use the Inertial Upper Stage booster for launching, and the first spacecraft to test aerobraking as a method for circularizing its orbit. ""Magellan"" was the fifth successful NASA mission to Venus, and it ended"
"the second mission to reach Mercury, after Mariner 10. MESSENGER entered orbit around Mercury on March 18, 2011, and it reactivated its science instruments on March 24, returning the first photo from Mercury orbit on March 29. MESSENGER crashed into Mercury on April 30, 2015 after running out of propellant. The New Frontiers program is a series of space exploration missions being conducted by NASA with the purpose of researching several of the Sun's planets including Jupiter, Venus, and the dwarf planet Pluto. NASA is encouraging both domestic and international scientists to submit mission proposals for the project. New Frontiers"
"US Post Office issued a commemorative stamp featuring the ""Mariner 10"" space probe. The 10-cent ""Mariner 10"" commemorative stamp was issued on April 4, 1975, at Pasadena, California. Since the backup spacecraft was never launched, it was put on exhibition at the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. Mariner 10 Mariner 10 was an American robotic space probe launched by NASA on November 3, 1973, to fly by the planets Mercury and Venus. ""Mariner 10"" was launched approximately two years after ""Mariner 9"" and was the last spacecraft in the Mariner program. (Mariner 11 and 12 were"
"Soviet Union launched the ""Zond 1"" probe to Venus in 1964, but it malfunctioned sometime after its May 16 telemetry session. During another American flyby in 1967, ""Mariner 5"" measured the strength of Venus's magnetic field. In 1974, ""Mariner 10"" swung by Venus on its way to Mercury and took ultraviolet photographs of the clouds, revealing the extraordinarily high wind speeds in the Venusian atmosphere. On March 1, 1966 the ""Venera 3"" Soviet space probe crash-landed on Venus, becoming the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet. Its sister craft ""Venera 2"" had failed due to overheating shortly"
"curved surface. A bell-shaped unit holding propulsion systems was attached to the bottom of the cylinder, and mounted on top was a 2.4 meter sphere which held the landers. To reach Venus, the spacecraft traveled in a heliocentric orbit from Earth to the planet with perihelion of 0.72 AU, apohelion of 1.02 AU, eccentricity of 0.17, inclination of 2.3 degrees and orbital period of 294 days. On October 23, 1975, this spacecraft was separated from the Orbiter, and landing was made with the sun near zenith, at 0517 UT, on October 25. A system of circulating fluid was used to"
"should land on Venus by 1:00 PM PDT Thursday, October 13, 1994. Magellan (spacecraft) The Magellan spacecraft, also referred to as the Venus Radar Mapper, was a robotic space probe launched by NASA of the United States, on May 4, 1989, to map the surface of Venus by using synthetic aperture radar and to measure the planetary gravitational field. The ""Magellan"" probe was the first interplanetary mission to be launched from the Space Shuttle, the first one to use the Inertial Upper Stage booster for launching, and the first spacecraft to test aerobraking as a method for circularizing its orbit."
"has been imaged by 7 different cameras on different spacecraft over the past 50 years. The pictures from the Red Planet started with one of the pictures from Mariner 4 in the summer of 1965. The following pictures show these pictures with their increasing resolution over the years. The resolution in the first image by Mariner 4 was 1.25 Km/pixel; that compares to the approximate 50 cm/pixel resolution of HiRISE. Memnonia quadrangle The Memnonia quadrangle is one of a series of 30 quadrangle maps of Mars used by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Astrogeology Research Program. The Memnonia quadrangle"
"looping once around the Sun while Mercury completed two orbits, ""Mariner 10"" flew by Mercury again on September 21, 1974, at a more distant range of below the southern hemisphere. After losing roll control in October 1974, a third and final encounter, the closest to Mercury, took place on March 16, 1975, at a range of , passing almost over the north pole. With its maneuvering gas just about exhausted, ""Mariner 10"" started another orbit of the Sun. Engineering tests were continued until March 24, 1975, when final depletion of the nitrogen supply was signaled by the onset of an"
"each designed for color imaging. Each failed to return images when the lens covers did not separate after landing due to a design flaw. List of lander experiments and instruments: Venera 12 The Venera 12 ( meaning ""Venus 12"") was a Soviet unmanned space mission to explore the planet Venus. Venera 12 was launched on 14 September 1978 at 02:25:13 UTC. Separating from its flight platform on December 19, 1978, the lander entered the Venus atmosphere two days later at 11.2 km/s. During the descent, it employed aerodynamic braking followed by parachute braking and ending with atmospheric braking. It made"
"BepiColombo BepiColombo is a joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to the planet Mercury. The mission comprises two satellites launched together: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and Mio (Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter, MMO). The mission will perform a comprehensive study of Mercury, including characterization of its magnetic field, magnetosphere, and both interior and surface structure. It was launched on an Ariane 5 rocket on 20 October 2018 at 01:45 UTC, with an arrival at Mercury planned for December 2025, after a flyby of Earth, two flybys of Venus, and six flybys of"
"Venera 9 Venera 9 ( meaning ""Venus 9""), manufacturer's designation: 4V-1 No. 660, was a Soviet unmanned space mission to Venus. It consisted of an orbiter and a lander. It was launched on June 8, 1975, at 02:38:00 UTC and had a mass of . The orbiter was the first spacecraft to orbit Venus, while the lander was the first to return images from the surface of another planet. The orbiter entered Venus orbit on October 20, 1975. Its mission was to act as a communications relay for the lander and to explore cloud layers and atmospheric parameters with several"
"dedicated ENA camera was not flown until 1995 on the Swedish Astrid-1 satellite, to study Earth's magnetosphere. Today, dedicated ENA instruments have provided detailed magnetospheric images from Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Cassini's ENA images of Saturn revealed a unique magnetosphere with complex interactions that have yet to be fully explained. The IMAGE mission's three dedicated ENA cameras observed Earth's magnetosphere from 2000–2005 while the TWINS Mission, launched in 2008, provides stereo ENA imaging of Earth's magnetosphere using simultaneous imaging from two satellites. The first ever images of the heliospheric boundary, published in October 2009, were made by the ENA"
"Mariner 10 Mariner 10 was an American robotic space probe launched by NASA on November 3, 1973, to fly by the planets Mercury and Venus. ""Mariner 10"" was launched approximately two years after ""Mariner 9"" and was the last spacecraft in the Mariner program. (Mariner 11 and 12 were allocated to the Voyager program and redesignated ""Voyager 1"" and ""Voyager 2"".) The mission objectives were to measure Mercury's environment, atmosphere, surface, and body characteristics and to make similar investigations of Venus. Secondary objectives were to perform experiments in the interplanetary medium and to obtain experience with a dual-planet gravity assist"
"""""Phoenix"" lander. One of the most successful of their instruments to date was the Mars Observer Camera (MOC), on board the Mars Global Surveyor placed into orbit around Mars in September 1997. From that date until November 2006, the MOC took more than 243,000 images of Mars, some at very high resolution. Among the MOCs notable successes was the imaging of the landing sites of the two Mars Exploration Rovers (the discarded heatshield of one of the rovers was located). Even before they landed, images from the MOC were very useful in picking the destinations of the two rovers. After"
"Mariner 4 Mariner 4 (together with Mariner 3 known as Mariner–Mars 1964) was the fourth in a series of spacecraft intended for planetary exploration in a flyby mode. It was designed to conduct closeup scientific observations of Mars and to transmit these observations to Earth. Launched on November 28, 1964, Mariner 4 performed the first successful flyby of the planet Mars, returning the first close-up pictures of the Martian surface. It captured the first images of another planet ever returned from deep space; their depiction of a cratered, seemingly dead world, largely changed the scientific community's view of life on"
"Some sources claim they were fitted with devices to compensate for aerodynamic drag and to withstand the effects of aerodynamic heating. First flight – Kosmos 371, 1970. Last flight – Kosmos 1214, 1980. A special version of the Zenit 4M intended for topographical photography. It carried a SA-106 topographic camera, a laser altimeter and Doppler apparatus. First flight – Kosmos 470, 1971. Last flight – Kosmos 1398, 1982. A ‘universal’ version of the Zenit, intended for both low-altitude, high-resolution missions and higher-altitude, general observation missions. All flights used the Soyuz launch vehicle. There were 96 launches. First flight – Kosmos"
"many engineers and scientists, the spacecraft have now completed the exploration of the outer Solar System. ""Voyager 1"" reached Saturn in November 1981, and then left the Solar System. Nearly 10 years later ""Voyager 1"" turned around to point its cameras towards Earth and took the famous ""Pale Blue Dot"" image. ""Voyager 2"" reached Saturn in August 1981, then went on to Uranus in 1986, and Neptune in 1989. The presentation of the 1979 James Watt International Medal was made on Wednesday, June 25, 1980 at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers in London. The Medal was presented to Heacock, Project"
"origin of Mercury's magnetic field remained the subject of several competing theories. On March 24, 1975, just eight days after its final close approach, ran out of fuel. Because its orbit could no longer be accurately controlled, mission controllers instructed the probe to shut down. is thought to be still orbiting the Sun, passing close to Mercury every few months. A second NASA mission to Mercury, named ""MESSENGER"" (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging), was launched on August 3, 2004. It made a fly-by of Earth in August 2005, and of Venus in October 2006 and June 2007 to"
"place it onto the correct trajectory to reach an orbit around Mercury. A first fly-by of Mercury occurred on January 14, 2008, a second on October 6, 2008, and a third on September 29, 2009. Most of the hemisphere not imaged by was mapped during these fly-bys. The probe successfully entered an elliptical orbit around the planet on March 18, 2011. The first orbital image of Mercury was obtained on March 29, 2011. The probe finished a one-year mapping mission, and then entered a one-year extended mission into 2013. In addition to continued observations and mapping of Mercury, ""MESSENGER"" observed"