The Mercury dual orbiter mission

Conference · Tue Mar 20 04:00:00 EST 1990 · AIP Conference Proceedings (American Institute of Physics); (USA)

OSTI ID:6807812

Baker, D N; Slavin, J A ^[1]

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1. NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (US)

The Mercury Orbiter (MeO) will carry out a full range of particles, fields, and planetary imaging science at Mercury. Present mission plans call for a launch in 1999 with a flight time of about 4.5 years. By means of multiple Venus and Mercury gravitational assists, the mission can be accomplished with present U.S. launch vehicles and a very large payload can be placed in orbit around Mercury. The dual-spacecraft concept will permit outstanding scientific study of solar cosmic rays and the solar wind throughout the inner heliosphere from 0.3 AU to 1.0 AU. Modest enhancements to the planned magnetospheric instruments and utilization of onboard solar instruments will permit unique investigation of solar particle acceleration and transport with the MeO spacecraft.

• OSTI ID: 6807812
• Report Number(s): CONF-8911161--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: AIP Conference Proceedings (American Institute of Physics); (USA) Journal Volume: 203:1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640104* -- Astrophysics & Cosmology-- Solar Phenomena
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
COSMIC RAY DETECTION
DESIGN
DETECTION
LAUNCHING
MERCURY PLANET
NASA
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
ORBITS
PLANETS
RADIATION DETECTION
RADIATIONS
SATELLITES
SOLAR PARTICLES
SOLAR RADIATION
STELLAR RADIATION
US ORGANIZATIONS
VENUS PLANET