NASA Messenger Got A Surprise On April 1 - Mariner 10

This is my third thread in the last few days on Mercury and Messenger. I'll be the reporter assigned I guess.

on April 1st they accidentally captured an image of Mariner 10 while taking the first images of Mercury with Messenger. Totally unexpected as it was not supposed to be there for another 23 days.

That thing is close.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/1d57a6e58d0f.jpg[/atsimg]

According to the NASA Press Release, the first reaction of some on the MESSENGER team was that the feature to the left of Mercury’s limb must be an imaging artifact.

The imaging team brought the anomalous image to the attention of Mission Systems Engineer E. Finn Again, who immediately called an emergency gathering of the Collision Avoidance Review Board.

One of MESSENGER’s Science Team members, Prof. S. T. Rom, recognized the object immediately as Mariner 10, the only spacecraft before MESSENGER to have visited Mercury. Launched in 1973, Mariner 10 flew by Mercury three times in 1974 and 1975 before communication with the probe was lost.

Mission design lead Mick Adams quickly calculated that Mariner 10 should not be encountering Mercury on this date. “Mariner 10 and Mercury were in a resonant state that brought the spacecraft by the planet once every two Mercury years. By my calculation, this appearance is 23 days early.”

MESSENGER’s navigation team members, all of whom are named Williams, plugged these suggestions into their codes. Minutes later they were able to announce to all assembled that Mariner 10 appeared to be in a new resonant state, one synchronous with Earth’s period. The ancient spacecraft is locked into an orbit that swings it by Mercury once every Earth year, on April 1st.

physorg.com

Quite the April fools joke played on the Messenger team ain't it?
S&F

reply to post by timewalker


I got an error when trying to look at your link.

But I wonder what could have changed the orbit of Mariner? It is cool though that the new probe met the old probe...kind of ironic!

reply to post by Mista25

Wonder who played it?

Of course they have it all figured out now.

reply to post by TripleSalCal

Dunno?

I tried it, worked for me.

You can just go to physorg.com. It's on the front page about mid scroll.

I especially like S T Rom's off the cuff poetry!!!

HAHA thats really cool!

I really hate April fools day I think we should just just celebrate April Mariner's day from now on...

That photo reminded me of,,just how amazing it is, for us to have satellites orbiting other worlds.
It instantly brought to mind the ancient astronaut theory of the "Black Night" satellite, that some say is orbiting earth.Makes you think, if we have satellites orbiting other worlds, do other worlds have satellites orbiting ours?

Nice thread

there is no sign of collision on mariner...how come he changed position??...not being able to calculate were an object is in space is quiet frustrating to Nasa i guess

reply to post by roughycannon


It's much more fun to read the threads every year.

reply to post by timewalker


Too bad they cant activate it again. Would love to find out why its not in the position its supposed to be in......

Star and Flag

This isnt the first time calculations have been off. Remember the whole Mars fiasco where they didnt use the metric system?

reply to post by sonnny1

Guidance and control lead E. C. Shaughn offered that the effect of solar radiation should have substantially altered Mariner 10’s orbit over the past 36 years as a result of solar sailing. Propulsion lead Brecht Engel added that some residual propellant after Mariner 10’s last propulsive maneuver may have outgassed, and that multiple outgassing events may also have contributed to trajectory changes.

From the article.

Professional way of saying WTF.

(that is a word now)

reply to post by timewalker


I was hoping for a MONOLITH moving it,but I guess ill have to deal with bad programing from NASA,once again.........

Warning! Some of us are pretty dim bulbs. Can someone say explicitly that this affair was an April Fool's Day joke?

I mean, after a few decades of lies, misinformation and denials from NASA/JPL, etc., how are we are supposed to recognize inside jokes as this seems to be...or is it?

Originally posted by Aliensun
Warning! Some of us are pretty dim bulbs. Can someone say explicitly that this affair was an April Fool's Day joke?

I mean, after a few decades of lies, misinformation and denials from NASA/JPL, etc., how are we are supposed to recognize inside jokes as this seems to be...or is it?

I cant see how this will make any one laugh

Originally posted by heineken

Originally posted by Aliensun
Warning! Some of us are pretty dim bulbs. Can someone say explicitly that this affair was an April Fool's Day joke?

I mean, after a few decades of lies, misinformation and denials from NASA/JPL, etc., how are we are supposed to recognize inside jokes as this seems to be...or is it?

I cant see how this will make any one laugh

If you were a JPL scientist with little sense of humor, and they put up this surprising image, wouldn't you spill your coffee...maybe in terror if not laughing?

reply to post by Aliensun


Nah they'd be too busy making up the next lot of lies and disinformation...

There wasn't very much effort given to this April Fools joke, as you can clearly see the amateurish chop-job of this obviously inauthentic Photoshop image, simple exposure adjusted.

reply to post by Illustronic


lol yep.
It's a bad chop job.
Got it open in GIMP and Inkscape, and you are right. lol