Comments on: Mission to Mercury

Mission to Mercury

Artw — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 15:28:21 -0800

Mercury Messenger, a NASA probe, just performed a fly-by of Mercury at a height of 200 kilometers. It's the first spacecraft to visit Mercury since 1975.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 15:33:22 -0800

It's just as I thought: Mercury hasn't changed a bit since the 70s.

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 15:38:01 -0800

I'm kinda disappointed we don't have more of these probes around all the planets in our system. This stuff is too interesting not to.

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 15:57:19 -0800

<ahem>ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE!

By: misha

misha — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:13:32 -0800

I can't zoom in on the aliens. Where is the link to Googlemaps Mercury version?

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:17:21 -0800

Where is the link to Googlemaps Mercury version? Attempt no zooming there.

By: basicchannel

basicchannel — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:19:31 -0800

Attempt not Street View™ there.

By: basicchannel

basicchannel — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:19:43 -0800

no/not

By: Devils Rancher

Devils Rancher — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:20:11 -0800

Check the array of Xserve RAIDS in the Nasa Space Science Data Center logo.

By: Devils Rancher

Devils Rancher — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:21:45 -0800

(my god! It's full of craters!)

By: joeblough

joeblough — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:25:10 -0800

thanks, i had forgotten all about this probe. i remember seeing the "leaving earth" movie a few years ago, and its still amazing even now.

By: hal9k

hal9k — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:18:49 -0800

I vaguely remember something like this.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:49:13 -0800

If you are thinking "hey, I know Mercury is small but that looks further than 200 km" the photo they have up is from 760,000 km. So, you're right. It's still 16 hours or so until it starts transmitting the data back to Earth.

By: Tube

Tube — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:56:54 -0800

*Obligatory juvenile comment referencing Uranus*

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:57:09 -0800

It's still 16 hours or so until it starts transmitting the data back to Earth. That's what the aliens want us to think.

By: blacklite

blacklite — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 18:55:39 -0800

My interest over time in NASA's explorations of the solar system sort of looks like this: \ I kind of wish I was six again, sometimes.

By: CynicalKnight

CynicalKnight — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:19:09 -0800

Fly fast sweet tiny Mercury - if NASA gets their measuring tape around your equator you'll be declared Planeta Non Grata

By: papercake

papercake — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:32:47 -0800

That's no moon... that's a space station!

By: dhartung

dhartung — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 00:29:48 -0800

blacklite: That's too bad, because to me it's incredible what we keep discovering. When I was six, only Saturn had rings, Pluto was a planet (and the last gas stop before Wolf 359), Mars was more than likely dry and dead, Earth was the only planet with active volcanoes ... and of course, when an object leaves the solar system, it does so with trivially predictable physics. If all you're interested in is more photos, I suppose that could get old, but each trip we take out seems to tell us how little we know. Especially Mars. Mars tells us we don't know jack about landing shit on other planets about 1/3 of the time, still.

By: elpapacito

elpapacito — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 05:26:18 -0800

A flyby just 200 Km away from the surface of a planet distant how many million kilometers ? At what speed ? That's fucking amazing, I say fucking amazing. I am in awe. I am so unsubscribing to "creationist science weekly"

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 12:04:34 -0800

Sure. 1975. Just a flyby. And they never call, never write...what if, God forbid, Mercury should get cancer, all that sun. Where you going to send your spacecraft then, big shot?

By: smackfu

smackfu — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 15:56:06 -0800

Actual results!