Missions to Mercury

Details Missions to Mercury Missions to Mercury

Oct 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007ssrv..132..611b&link_type=abstract

Space Science Reviews, Volume 132, Issue 2-4, pp. 611-645

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Mercury, Mariner 10, Messenger, Bepicolombo

Scientific paper

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.

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