Mariner 10 flew via Mercury thrice from 1974 to 1975. The NASA spacecraft encountered a cratered, moonlike terrain because it mapped the planet’s floor (a photomosaic of the southern hemisphere proven).
JPL-Caltech/NASA
Off to Mercury with a chilly look — Science Information, November 10, 1973
Mercury ho! Mariner 10 is on its manner. Venus ho, too. Introduced at 12:45 a.m. (EST) on Nov. 3, Mariner will have to move inside 3,330 miles of Venus on Feb. 5. It is going to then turn into the primary spacecraft to make use of one way … of letting the gravitational box of 1 planet bend its direction round towards a 2nd function. That’s Mercury, after all, the place it’ll arrive lower than two months later.
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Mariner 10 arrived on agenda, turning into the primary probe to seek advice from Mercury and map a portion of its cratered, moonlike terrain. The gravity lend a hand that Mariner used to achieve its vacation spot is now a depended on manner to get across the sun machine (SN: 7/12/15; SN: 7/5/18). NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft used gravity assists from Mercury, Venus and Earth to achieve an orbit round Mercury in 2011, the place the probe mapped the remainder of the planet’s floor, exposed proof of previous volcanism and noticed indicators of water ice and natural compounds (SN: 11/29/11; SN: 3/22/12; SN: 11/30/12).
As of late, the global BepiColombo challenge is the usage of gravitational assists from Mercury — following one from Earth and two from Venus — to influence itself into eventual orbit across the planet (SN: 1/15/21). Starting in 2025, BepiColombo will examine Mercury’s innards and magnetic box.
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