Abstract
NASA IS SCHEDULED TO launch its first mission to in nearly 3 0 years this week. The Surface Space Environment, Geochemistry & Ranging —or Messenger —spacecraft will begin its voyage on Aug. 2, barring any last-minute delays. Messenger will travel almost 5 billion miles, making one flyby of Earth, two flybys ofVenus, and three passes around before settling into the small planet's orbit in 2011. The spacecraft will then spend a year studying Mercury's planetary structure and composition, including whether the planet has ice in its polar craters. The mission will also study the planet's atmosphere and magnetosphere. For nearly 30 years, we've had questions that couldn't be answered until technology and mission designs caught up with our desire to go back to Mercury says Sean C. Solomon, mission principal investigator and director of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at Carnegie Institution of Washington, D.C Now we are ready The answers to ...
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