Mercury - MESSENGER

[granthutchison]

With the impending flyby of Mercury on 14 January, I've been playing with my MESSENGER xyz and Cham's model from the Motherlode.
http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/catalog/show_addon_details.php?addon_id=844

If you're interested in seeing which parts of Mercury will be visible on the day, you might want to borrow a Mercury texture combining radar and Mariner 10 imagery, by Phil Stooke and Tayfun ?–ner, from this thread at Unmanned Spaceflight.com:
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=946&st=45

I also tweaked the MESSENGER ssc for version 1.5, so that it keeps its heat shield and solar panels orientated towards the Sun:

Code: Select all

"Messenger" "Sol"
{
   Class "spacecraft"
   Mesh "messenger2.3ds"
   Radius 0.006

   Beginning 2453220.8021 # 2004 Aug 03 07:15

   SampledOrbit "messenger.xyz"

   FixedRotation { }
}

Modify "Messenger" "Sol"
{
   BodyFrame {
     TwoVector {
       Center "Sol/Messenger"
       Primary {
         Axis "-x"
         RelativePosition { Target "Sol" }
       }
       Secondary {
              Axis "y"
              RelativeVelocity { Target "Sol" }
       }
     }
   }
}

Grant

[t00fri]

Hi all,

in anticipation of Messenger's arrival at Mercury on January 14 2008 and in continuation of Grant's post above mine, I made some respective images:

Firstly, here is a remarkable WEBsite
http://www.astrosurf.com/nunes/explor/explor_m10.htm
that presumably containts the best attempts of arriving at realistic color imaging for Mercury and Venus.

The author, Ricardo Nunes, used calibrated images from the Mariner 10 mission to Mercury and Venus. The images were flat field corrected and processed using the Moon's spectral reflectance as a guide for Mercury's color.

Here is an example of Mercury, processed from clear and blue filter image mosaics.


Next I used these colors to computer-map them onto Phil Stookes remarkable revised 2400x1200 cylindrical projection of Mercury imaging
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/inde ... =946&st=47
that contains ALL imaging data presently known. Here is a 3 times reduced (800x400) small image to give you a flavour:

The unknown parts are clearly visible as well.

For playing, you may download the fullsized (2400x1200) and colorized map from here:
http://www.celestiaproject.net/~t00fri/images/mercury2400.jpg

Finally, using Cham's nice Messenger add-on, Phil Stookes' colorized Mercury map and Grant's above revision of messenger.ssc, here are a few Celestia shots of the passage of the probe past Mercury on January 14 2008 between 21:00 and 22:30 UTC. You can nicely judge how well the shooting position will be to cover at last most of the unknown regions...

Approaching:


Passing, and looking a little back:


Best shooting position after the passage


Enjoy,
Fridger

[ElChristou]

Nice!

[Derek]

Thanks Fridger,

Followed and used the same model, ssc and your Mercury texture turned out just like your pics above very nice.

thanks again

[cartrite]

Nice Indeed!
I'll have to give this a try.

[BobHegwood]

Good Doctor,

If I may, you lost me here...

Are you saying that both sides of Mercury - as seen above - now
contain REAL imagery? It still looks to me as if there are completely
fictional textures involved somehow.

Please forgive me if this is not the case, but like I said, I'm confused.

Also, is this mission NOT designed to reveal the ENTIRE surface of
Mercury? If this is the case, then why did they even bother with
a mission?

Is there some problem with getting a spacecraft into permanent orbit
around Mercury?

You already know that I'm a Brain-Dead Bozo, so please be kind in
your response.

[t00fri]

Good Doctor,

If I may, you lost me here...

Are you saying that both sides of Mercury - as seen above - now contain REAL imagery? It still looks to me as if there are completely fictional textures involved somehow.

Please forgive me if this is not the case, but like I said, I'm confused.

Bob, that's why I called Phil Stooke's revised cylindrical Mercury map "remarkable", since he has for the first time /reprojected/ and aligned all sorts of imaging bits and pieces, such that now a MUCH larger region of Mercury is covered with images. There is NO fiction involved here.

The maps that you remember look like this, instead:

(only much better resolution)

Also, is this mission NOT designed to reveal the ENTIRE surface of Mercury? If this is the case, then why did they even bother with a mission? Is there some problem with getting a spacecraft into permanent orbit around Mercury?

Please remember that a lot of "white area" remained after the Mariner 10 missions! These were proper missions, weren't they?

In order to find out precisely, you may use that very same add-on, since it contains Grant's messenger.xyz flight path from horizons. So just have a look what Messenger will do. I was not sure about the details of the mission, but it became clear from my shots that a LARGE part of the unknown territory will be imaged FOR SURE. Whether some small "white spots" will remain, I don't know.

Bye Fridger

[granthutchison]

Bob, MESSENGER will go into orbit around Mercury in 2011, and will completely map the planet.
If you watch what's going on between now and then using Celestia, you'll see that it uses three flybys of Mercury to alter its orbit first, pulling down the aphelion (the point farthest from the sun). This means its velocity at perihelion (when it is next to Mercury) is slower, which means that it will need less fuel to get into orbit.
It's using Mercury's gravity to do some of the work. During the flybys, though, it will provide images of a number of areas missed by Mariner, which we know only from radar and telescope views from Earth. Those radar and telescope views are what Phil Stooke has used to prepare his map in advance of the first encounter on Monday. I thought people would like to get a flavour of what they're going to be seeing when the pictures come in.

The xyz I built for this mission stops in 2011, because the orbit phase wasn't available when I made it. I must check and see if mission planning has got to the stage of providing some orbit data too.

Grant

[BobHegwood]

Bob, that's why I called Phil Stoke's revised cylindrical Mercury map "remarkable", since he has for the first time /reprojected/ and aligned all sorts of imaging bits and pieces, such that now a MUCH larger region of Mercury is covered with images. There is NO fiction involved here.

Ah... Okay, now I understand. Thank you very much for the
explanation. That is very cool. May one ask though, why this data
was not made available prior to now?

Not complaining by any means. I'm really just very curious to know
why the new data only appears prior to a brand new re-mapping of
the entire planet.

Thanks again, Brain-Dead

[BobHegwood]

Bob, MESSENGER will go into orbit around Mercury in 2011, and will completely map the planet.
If you watch what's going on between now and then using Celestia, you'll see that it uses three flybys of Mercury to alter its orbit first, pulling down the aphelion (the point farthest from the sun). This means its velocity at perihelion (when it is next to Mercury) is slower, which means that it will need less fuel to get into orbit.

Okay THANKS, Grant. I have obviously NOT investigated the mission
very closely, and I thought that perhaps the closeness of the Sun
might have some detrimental effect on any spacecraft trying to orbit
at such a close distance.

Thanks again, Brain-Dead Bob

[granthutchison]

May one ask though, why this data
was not made available prior to now?

Some of it, like the SOAR data, is only recently published. Some has been around for a while. So the global map has been slowly assembling, and Phil Stooke has produced a compilation in anticipation of the upcoming flyby.

Grant

[t00fri]

May one ask though, why this data
was not made available prior to now?

Some of it, like the SOAR data, is only recently published. Some has been around for a while. So the global map has been slowly assembling, and Phil Stooke has produced a compilation in anticipation of the upcoming flyby.

Grant

The SOAR data from that paper are NOT (yet) contained in Phil Stookes map that I was using. Neither are they in T.Oener's related map. It's seems the new data on the rhs are mainly radar-based (Arecibo) . Also the Mt. Wilson telescope images are neither implemented.

F.

[granthutchison]

The SOAR data from that paper are NOT (yet) contained in Phil Stookes map that I was using. Neither are they in T.Oener's related map.

I didn't mean to imply they were. Gerard Cecil presents and discusses the SOAR data later in the thread I linked to in my first post, however.
I was using that as an example to show Bob that new stuff is appearing all the time, and that we haven't simply frozen at the level of knowledge Mariner left us with.

Grant

[danielj]

Very good.I can see that Phil Stooke is ALIVE and WORKING.However,even HIM became very lazy.Since August 2007,we have enough material to build a new model and textures for AT LEAST Hyperion,but we have NOTHING NEW 6 months after it.I know it??s difficult,demands time,but he is the specialist in minor bodies.In the last 2 or 3 years,he didn??t produce ANY model of a minor body (asteroid,comet or moon).visited by a spacecraft,which is really A SHAME!

With the impending flyby of Mercury on 14 January, I've been playing with my MESSENGER xyz and Cham's model from the Motherlode.
http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/catalog/show_addon_details.php?addon_id=844

If you're interested in seeing which parts of Mercury will be visible on the day, you might want to borrow a Mercury texture combining radar and Mariner 10 imagery, by Phil Stooke and Tayfun ?–ner, from this thread at Unmanned Spaceflight.com:
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=946&st=45

I also tweaked the MESSENGER ssc for version 1.5, so that it keeps its heat shield and solar panels orientated towards the Sun:

Code: Select all

"Messenger" "Sol"
{
   Class "spacecraft"
   Mesh "messenger2.3ds"
   Radius 0.006

   Beginning 2453220.8021 # 2004 Aug 03 07:15

   SampledOrbit "messenger.xyz"

   FixedRotation { }
}

Modify "Messenger" "Sol"
{
   BodyFrame {
     TwoVector {
       Center "Sol/Messenger"
       Primary {
         Axis "-x"
         RelativePosition { Target "Sol" }
       }
       Secondary {
              Axis "y"
              RelativeVelocity { Target "Sol" }
       }
     }
   }
}

Grant

[granthutchison]

Very good.I can see that Phil Stooke is ALIVE and WORKING.However,even HIM became very lazy.Since August 2007,we have enough material to build a new model and textures for AT LEAST Hyperion,but we have NOTHING NEW 6 months after it.I know it??s difficult,demands time,but he is the specialist in minor bodies.In the last 2 or 3 years,he didn??t produce ANY model of a minor body (asteroid,comet or moon).visited by a spacecraft,which is really A SHAME!

It's just possible that his job and life involve priorities other than keeping you entertained.
"Lazy" people are the ones who do nothing but gripe from the sidelines.

Grant

[t00fri]

Very good.I can see that Phil Stooke is ALIVE and WORKING.However,even HIM became very lazy.Since August 2007,we have enough material to build a new model and textures for AT LEAST Hyperion,but we have NOTHING NEW 6 months after it.I know it??s difficult,demands time,but he is the specialist in minor bodies.In the last 2 or 3 years,he didn??t produce ANY model of a minor body (asteroid,comet or moon).visited by a spacecraft,which is really A SHAME!

Daniel,

after you placed similar impertinent posts into quite a number of threads during the last week, my patience is really coming to an end.

Often I keep my temper down, knowing that you have a medical problem. But really, with your posts you are seriously disturbing the flow of conversation in many threads. ... AND you are definitely aware of this fact!

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Therefore I am calling Selden to put a halt to this kind of nonsense!
+++++++++++++++++++++++

F.

[EDIT]: In fact Phil Stookes has produced a whole 440 page BOOK The International Atlas of Lunar Exploration, as of Nov. 2007!!
http://publish.uwo.ca/~pjstooke/atlas.htm

[BobHegwood]

It's just possible that his job and life involve priorities other than keeping you entertained.
"Lazy" people are the ones who do nothing but gripe from the sidelines.

Grant

Some of us are helping AND griping from the sidelines.

Sorry, couldn't resist. My questions are generally posted because
of my ignorance. I apologize for this, but it is what it is. I used to be
smarter, but old age and my health aren't helping matters much.

At any rate, I very much appreciate both your answers and Fridger's.

Many thanks to you both.

[granthutchison]

Some of us are helping AND griping from the sidelines.

Sorry, couldn't resist. My questions are generally posted because
of my ignorance. I apologize for this, but it is what it is.

Bob, I can't remember a question from you that could be interpreted as a "gripe". Both your questions and contributions are certainly valued here.
I was careful to aim my remarks only at those who do nothing but gripe.

Grant

[granthutchison]

In fact Phil Stooke has produced a whole 440 page BOOK "The International Atlas of Lunar Exploration", as of Nov. 2007!!
http://publish.uwo.ca/~pjstooke/atlas.htm

Holy moly, would you look at that.
That's my birthday list sorted.

Grant

[t00fri]

In fact Phil Stooke has produced a whole 440 page BOOK "The International Atlas of Lunar Exploration", as of Nov. 2007!!
http://publish.uwo.ca/~pjstooke/atlas.htm

Holy moly, would you look at that.
That's my birthday list sorted.

Grant

[Internal]:

Grant,

I am actually NOT forgetting about the Black Holes...I just need to take some "breath" after the Christmas holidays are over ...
[/Internal]