MESSENGER camera check
Tue Jan 18, 2005 at 06:55 UTC
Nominal cruise operations continued over the past week. On Jan. 12, the MESSENGER science, engineering and mission operations teams successfully conducted the second absolute radiometric calibration for the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) instrument. Repeating an exercise carried out last Nov. 29, operators tilted the spacecraft 27 degrees so the camera could image sunlight reflected off a target inside the payload attachment fitting, which surrounds MDIS and three other science instruments on MESSENGER's lower deck.
"The operation went very smoothly," reports Mission Operations Manager Mark Holdridge, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.
"The operation went very smoothly," reports Mission Operations Manager Mark Holdridge, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.
Other activities included turning on the backup Integrated Electronics Module for routine housekeeping operations.
MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) is a scientific investigation of the planet Mercury, and the first NASA mission designed to orbit the planet closest to the Sun. Dr. Sean C. Solomon, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, leads the mission as principal investigator. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, built and operates the MESSENGER spacecraft and manages the Discovery-class mission for NASA.
