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MESSENGER

The MESSENGER (Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging) mission was launched in August 2004 on a long journey to Mercury. The spacecraft will complete one flyby of Earth, two of Venus, and three of Mercury before entering Mercury's orbit in March 2011 for an orbital phase of one Earth year.

Instruments and Archives

Instrument PDS Archives
EPPS (Energetic Particle and Plasma Spectrometer) EPPS Archive
(at the PPI Node)
GRS (Gamma Ray Spectrometer) and
NS (Neutron Spectrometer)
GRS and NS Archives
MAG (Magnetometer) MAG Archive
(at the PPI Node)
MASCS (Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer) includes:
   UVVS (Ultraviolet/Visible Spectrometer)
   VIRS (Visible/Infrared Spectrograph)
MASCS Archive
 
MDIS (Mercury Dual Imaging System) MDIS Archive
(at the Imaging Node)
MLA (Mercury Laser Altimeter) MLA Archive
Radio Science Radio Science Archive
XRS (X-Ray Spectrometer) XRS Archive
SPICE (Geometry and Navigation) SPICE Archive
at  the NAIF Node

Online Tools

Mercury Orbital Data Explorer - Provides search, display, and download  tools for selected MESSENGER data sets.

More Information

Release Schedule

The MESSENGER Project releases data at irregular intervals based on mission events.

Here is the release schedule through the end of the primary mission.

Release Data Acquisition Release to Public
1 N/A
(Ground calibration data)
Not online due to
low demand;
available on request
2 Aug. 3, 2004 - Jun. 5, 2007
(Earth and Venus flybys)
Dec. 15, 2007
3 Jun. 6, 2007 - Jan. 14, 2008
(First Mercury flyby)
Jul. 15, 2008
4 Jan. 15, 2008 - Oct. 20, 2008
(Second Mercury flyby)
Apr. 15, 2009
5 Oct. 21, 2008 - Sep. 29, 2009
(Third Mercury flyby)
Mar. 15, 2010
6 Sep. 30, 2009 - Mar. 18, 2011
(Mercury orbit insertion)
Sep. 15, 2011
7 Mar. 19, 2011 - Sep. 18, 2011
(Orbit insertion + 6 months)
Mar. 15, 2012
8 Sep. 19, 2011 - Mar. 18, 2012
(End of orbital operations)
Sep. 15, 2012
9 Aug. 3, 2004 - Mar. 18, 2012
(Final derived products)
Mar. 15, 2013

 

What's New

April 15, 2008. Release 4 data are now online, covering the period through the second Mercury flyby (October 20, 2008).

July 13, 2008. Release 3 data are now online, covering the period after the second Venus flyby through the first Mercury flyby (January 14, 2008).

December 15, 2007. Release 2 (first science data release) is now online.

 

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Curator: Susan Slavney
NASA Official: Raymond E. Arvidson
Last Updated:
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