Messenger Probe Sends Back Mercury Photos

arbitraryaardvark writes "NASA's Messenger probe flew past Mercury at a distance of 125 miles. The spacecraft took hundreds of pictures during the pass, updating photos from the now 30-year-old Mariner mission. According to an article at the International Business Times, the probe will eventually settle into orbit around Mercury in 2011. 'The images obtained by the $446 million MESSENGER mission (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) this week contain some of those unexplored areas. One image released Saturday was taken after Messenger made its closest approach to Mercury last week. In the photos released this week, scientists have observed unexplored cratered areas of the planet. On Monday, Messenger made its closest approach to Mercury yet, aiming for new discoveries. Among its goals is to discover if Mercury has ice water in its polar craters and to complete the mapping of the whole planet.' Meanwhile here on Earth, a joint EU/Japan probe with an ion drive is set to head towards Mercury sometime in 2013."

Now that's engineering

[PCM2]

Leave it to the engineers at NASA: It's not enough that the probe is going to send messages back from an alien world. It's not enough that the world in question is Mercury, who was the messenger of the Roman gods. No. They have to make it an acronym.

Doesn't look like a phone to me...

[Vthornheart]

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/multimedia/phone_crater.html [nasa.gov]

NASA says that crater looks like it has a phone shape in it. The first thing I thought was "Damnit, someone put a copyright on Mercury."

Engineers or marketeers?

[EmbeddedJanitor]

Real engineers wouldn't care if it was called project 11-A-004. Likely the name came for manager/spin-people spending hours and hours in meetings and focus groups, costing tax payers about $5.7 million.

Obligatory....

[plasmacutter]

The first thing I thought was "Damnit, someone put a copyright on Mercury."

this is most definitely proof of intelligent design. LOOK! God even put a copyright on it!

Re:Doesn't look like a phone to me...

[KudyardRipling]

This IP sh!t has got to stop.

It must be the same people who make custom planets like Magrathea. It appears to be one of the rejects as there was a fault in the planetary raw material processing unit when the mantle was being poured. You know, "Segmentation fault - CORE DUMPED". It would be a pisser to see the photoshots on the next flyby reveal the "Made in Taiwan" imprint.

Downmodding proves veracity beyond question. Not responsible for soy latte spat on keyboard or excretory incontinence.

Re:Mercury = moon?

[madhuri]

why is it in black & white?

NASA's going for that 'vintage' look that's all the rage now. Black and white just has a certain classiness that color can't rival.

Copyrighted image

[Dan East]

I'm afraid the SETI people will be quite disappointed when the first extraterrestrial communication they receive is from a copyright lawyer.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/multimedia/phone_crater.html [nasa.gov]

Dan East