Missions to Mercury
Abstract
Mercury is a very difficult planet to observe from the Earth, and space missions that target Mercury are essential for a comprehensive understanding of the planet. At the same time, it is also difficult to orbit because it is deep inside the Sun’s gravitational well. Only one mission has visited Mercury; that was Mariner 10 in the 1970s. This paper provides a brief history of Mariner 10 and the numerous imaginative but unsuccessful mission proposals since the 1970s for another Mercury mission. In the late 1990s, two missions—MESSENGER and BepiColombo—received the go-ahead; MESSENGER is on its way to its first encounter with Mercury in January 2008. The history, scientific objectives, mission designs, and payloads of both these missions are described in detail.
- Publication:
-
Space Science Reviews
- Pub Date:
- October 2007
- DOI:
- 10.1007/s11214-007-9212-4
- Bibcode:
- 2007SSRv..132..611B
- Keywords:
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- Mercury;
- Mariner 10;
- MESSENGER;
- BepiColombo