Mercury Messenger Mission

Animation of NASA's Mercury Messenger flight path. (Image credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington)

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Space
• Earth
• Venus
• Messenger
• Mercury
• NASA

[osclarkos]

great video thanks

[jessyjessy4]

very interesting thanks

[SuperDogbrown]

very interesting video thanks

[distractionxx]

some sweet info here

[jessyjessy4]

really informative and interesting

[distractionxx]

you have some great stuff here

[willbirful]

love the video man

[grayaj23]

The course corrections were also part of the initial calculations -- not that they knew how much correction would be needed, but they knew within a tight margin. For the final insertion into mercury orbit, they had to burn fuel four seconds longer than originally calculated. 7 1/2 years. Off by four seconds.

And one aside: Simple newtonian mechanics are all that's necessary to do this. It's also all that's needed to prove the universe is billions of years old. This is not a coincidence.

[cloudswrest]

@jandjsavage They calculate it ahead of time, monitor the position and make minor adjustments as needed with its rocket thrusters.

[jandjsavage]

That is downright amazing! How do they get the spaceship to always be in the right places at the right time?