MESSENGER Spacecraft and Payload Performance
Abstract
The Mercury, Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) mission, launched in May of this year, will be the first spacecraft to orbit the planet Mercury. The >14 kWm-2 solar thermal input and the large velocity change required to reach Mercury orbit make this a very challenging mission from thermal and mass perspectives. MESSENGER overcomes these challenges with innovative applications of existing technologies and materials. The spacecraft uses ordinary space electronics, has minimal moving parts, and has extensive redundancy and cross strapping to enhance its robustness. The major innovations are a ceramic-cloth thermal shade, an integrated lightweight structure, a high-performance propulsion system, and a solar array incorporating optical solar reflectors to prevent overheating. Seven miniaturized instruments, along with the spacecraft telecommunications system, satisfy all scientific objectives of the mission. The payload includes a dual imaging system with wide-angle and narrow-angle cameras; an integrated ultraviolet, visible, and infrared spectrometer that is sensitive enough to detect atmospheric emissions and robust enough to map mineralogical absorption features on the sun-lit surface; gamma-ray, X-ray, and neutron spectrometers for remote geochemical mapping; a vector magnetometer; a laser altimeter to determine the topography of surface features and determine whether Mercury has a fluid core; and an energetic particle and plasma spectrometer to characterize ionized species in the magnetosphere. The payload was fully calibrated before launch, and an additional series of calibration measurements are planned during the 5-year cruise to Mercury. The first of the three Venus flybys and two Mercury flybys during the cruise phase of the mission will occur in November 2004
- Publication:
-
35th COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004cosp...35.4365G