Jan 14, 2008 8:52 pm US/Mountain
CU Scientists Excited About Mercury Flyby
BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) ―
Scientists at NASA got the first look at the planet Mercury in more than 30 years on Monday and scientists at the University of Colorado can't wait to see how the instruments they built will help the mission.
After being launched more than three years ago, the Messenger spacecraft sent the first images and data of Mercury to NASA's Deep Space Network.
"It's hard to see because it's so close to the sun, it's hard to even point a telescope at it," said Mark Lankton, the program director at CU. "It's hard to keep the sun out of the field of view. It's not very big and it's hard to get to. People have not flown spacecraft to it except once before."
Because the last mission only mapped 45 percent of the planet, scientists hope the mission will provide even more data about its hot, rocky surface.
To help scientists better understand Mercury, the car-sized Messenger spacecraft is carrying seven instruments. At least two of the spectrometers on board were built by CU Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Apace Physics.
CU's instruments will make measurements of Mercury's surface and atmosphere.
"Our team here is extremely excited about the whole thing because we are going to see things that we never had a chance to measure before," Lankton said. "Try to find out how Mercury is made up, what it's all about."
It's a tricky journey to Mercury that requires more than seven years and 13 loops around the sun to guide it closer to the planet. Because Mercury is the closet planet to the sun, to make sure the spacecraft doesn't burn up, it's been equipped with a special sun shade.
This was the first of three flybys of Mercury this week. It will then settle in orbit around the planet in 2011.
It will take about a week to download all the pictures and other data. Working with Johns Hopkins University, NASA plans to release the flyby images on Jan. 30.
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