Mercury probe set for crash landing

Messenger, the NASA space probe that discovered water on Mercury and has orbited the planet for four years, will deliberately crash into the surface so that a future mission can monitor its impact crater to see how much weathering has occurred
---------------------------------------------
Sunshade: Nextel ceramic cloth surrounds layers of Kapton plastic insulation. Surface temperature reaches 370°C but probe kept at comfortable
20°C

Solar wing Two-thirds composed of mirrors to reflect heat away from solar cells

Journey: 7.9bn km

Mission cost: $446m

Antenna

Laser altimeter

Solar wing

Magnetometer Measures planet’s magnetic field

Spectrometers Measure charged particles in magnetosphere, detect minerals and gases on surface and in atmosphere

Picture: NASA/ JHUAPL/ Carnegie

Aug 2, 2004: Launch

Aug 1, 2005: Swings past Earth for gravity assist

Oct 24, 2006 Jun 6, 2007: Venus flybys

Jan 14, 2008 Oct 6, 2008 Sep 30, 2009: Mercury flybys

Mar 18, 2011: Enters orbit

Mar 30: First images sent back to Earth

DSM 1* DSM 2 DSM 3 DSM 4 DSM 5 MOI †
---------------------------------------------
Source: NASA

*Deep Space Manoeuvre

† Mercury Orbit Insertion 

words 181