Mercury Visit

[Channel Hopper]

The Messenger spacecraft has been successfully launched from Cape Canaveral on its six year journey to Mercury

The designs of modern rockets mean that it would be impossible to carry enough fuel for a straight journey (taking only four months) and so by use of gravity assist methods, interplanetary travel is achieved using multiple flybys of the earth (and in the case of Messenger, Venus) , to gain enough momentum to get to Mercury.

As a result of this slingshot method the craft will get there in about three years, but will be travelling at a speed that prevents it from attaining orbit around the planet. It will have to carry out two more solar orbits before it is slow enough to be captured by the planets gravitational forces.

Once there there are a plethora of instruments on board to allow the scientists to determine what is the least understood of the inner planets, all shielded by a man made piece of ceramic to prevent the searing heat of the sun from cooking them.

for more info

http://www.thespacesite.com/community/index.php?showtopic=964

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/



A couple of days late with this one, I was more occupied with the upcoming space walk on the ISS

 

[AForester]

@ CH

The statement "all shielded by a man made piece of ceramic" bought a smile to my face.
I could just imagine uncle joe down in his potting shed thowing a lump of clay on his potters wheel to make this ceramic shield then firing it in the kitchen stove ready for a man from NASA to pick it up.
Mind you I have a quirky sense of humor
Regards AF

 

[Channel Hopper]

Uncle Joe would surely be batting for one of the other space race companies ?

 

[AForester]

Not really, Uncle Joe has learnt from Tony Blah, and keeps his options open, he will supply to the USA and/or EU. He is not proud about taking money from anybody as he whizzes about Surbiton on his Electric Bike.;) ;)

Your original post was very informative and I shall be looking out for updates.

Regards AF

 

[Channel Hopper]

I was thinking more of Joseph Stalin (Uncle Joe to the other allies), and his backing of some of the more ambitious efforts to get a man into Space in the early 50s

http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/SPACEFLIGHT/energia/SP41.htm

Apparently there are some stories floating about that Roswell may actually have been the US counter intelligence spoof of an incident that occurred near Kiev, where a space ship was unearthed. Details are sketchy however.

Much prefer the English version myself (Quatermass and the Pit).

 

[AForester]

That article made very imteresting reading, thanks.
I must be getting senile, I just did not associate uncle joe with Stalin.
Quatermass and the pit was before I bought our first television, I seem to remember another Quatermass series but did not see that one either. Also was not a feature film made of Quatermass? Or am I really past it and ready to hang up my clogs (LOL)
Regards AF

 

[Channel Hopper]

Ah, here it is (not quite as I had imagined )

http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/11/19/39641.html

As for Quatermass, there have been a couple of incarnations of the Pit, a BBC series in 1957, followed in the 60s by a colour film (my favourite). Also called 5 Million Years to Earth.