[FOTZeiss] Fw: MESSENGER: Mercury Orbital Insertion

[Glenn A. Walsh]

FYI - Regarding the March 17-18 orbital insertion of the first satellite of the planet Mercury.

gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
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--- On Wed, 3/16/11, Kris Swanson <swans.kr at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Kris Swanson <swans.kr at gmail.com>
> Subject: [DOME-L:4095] MESSENGER MOI (Mercury Orbital Insertion)
> To: "Dome-L" <dome-l at googlegroups.com>
> Date: Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 7:53 PM

> Hello all,
> 
> I know many of you get listserv mail from NASA, Museum
> Alliance,
> etc... and know of MESSENGER's Orbital Insertion around
> Mercury Friday
> at 12:45am UTC (8:45EDT).  If you are looking for more
> info,
> animations, and the live webcast you can find that here:
> 
> http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/mer_orbit.html
> 
> Also, follow #MOI2011 on Twitter for up-to-the-second
> updates!
> 
> What will happen tomorrow night will be a little different
> from what
> we have become used to seeing with Mars rover landings and
> comet
> flybys.  There won't be any new images right
> away.  The folks running
> the mission at Applied Physics Lab are going to make sure
> that they
> have the orbit just right, including the positioning of
> MESSENGER's
> solar shield which protects all of its cameras and other
> instruments
> from the intense solar output it will experience in orbit
> (11 times
> what spacecraft orbiting Earth experience).  This will
> take for a week
> or two, I've heard March 28th thrown out as a possible
> date, before we
> see new images.  Of course, MESSENGER has already
> taken our best
> images of Mercury in its three previous flybys and you can
> get to them
> from the MESSENGER site above.  Also of possible
> interest, the
> MESSENGER outreach site with K-12 classroom activities and
> other
> resources:
> 
> http://www.messenger-education.org/main/epo.php
> 
> I'm one of 30 NASA MESSENGER Education Fellows (a volunteer
> gig - I'm
> the Planetarium Director at Poinciana Elementary School in
> Boynton
> Beach, FL most of the time) and would be happy to answer
> questions or
> help you find resources for your museums and schools. 
> Feel free to
> drop me an email if I can be of assistance!
> 
> Kris Swanson
> Planetarium Resource Teacher, Poinciana Elementary School
> NASA MESSENGER Educator Fellow
> kris at mrswanson.org