James A. Dunne and Eric Burgess - The Voyage of Mariner 10, Książki USA
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
sp424
file:///F:/nasa/mariner/mariner/history.nasa.gov/SP-424/sp424.htm
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NASA History Office
SP-424
The Voyage of Mariner 10
Mission to Venus and Mercury
James A. Dunne and Eric Burgess
Prepared by:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology
1 of 2
2/17/2008 11:00 AM
sp424
file:///F:/nasa/mariner/mariner/history.nasa.gov/SP-424/sp424.htm
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Scientific and Technical Information Office
Washington, D.C. 1978
Table of Contents
Updated: August 6, 2004.
Steven J. Dick, NASA Chief Historian
Steve Garber, NASA History Web Curator
For further information E-mail
histinfo@hq.nasa.gov
HTML work: Chris Gamble.
2 of 2
2/17/2008 11:00 AM
contents
file:///F:/nasa/mariner/mariner/history.nasa.gov/SP-424/contents.htm
SP-424 The Voyage of Mariner 10
-
CONTENTS
-
Foreword
.
Introduction + Acknowledgments
.
Chapter 1
. Earth's Sister and the Twilight Planet.
Chapter 2
. Mariner Venus-Mercury Mission.
Chapter 3
. Mariner's Payload.
Chapter 4
. Spacecraft, Scientists, and Schedules.
Chapter 5
. Venus Bound - Success and Near Failure.
Chapter 6
. Best Seen in Black Light.
Chapter 7
. Mercury, Moonlike and Earthlike.
Chapter 8
. Return to the Innermost Planet.
Chapter 9
. A Clearer Perspective.
Appendix A
. Mercury Mosaics and Maps.
Appendix B
. Processing the TV Images.
Appendix C
. Spacecraft and Science Teams.
Appendix D
. Mariner 10 Award Recipients.
Suggestions for Further Reading
.
Index
.
1 of 1
2/17/2008 11:00 AM
foreword
file:///F:/nasa/mariner/mariner/history.nasa.gov/SP-424/foreword.htm
SP-424 The Voyage of Mariner 10
FOREWORD
[
iv
] THE MISSION OF MARINER 10 was unique in several ways. It was the first American spacecraft to
take photographs of Venus. It was the first to use the gravity and motion of one planet to alter the flight path
of a spacecraft and send it to another planet. It was the first to explore the planet Mercury, which was
previously but a hazy image in the best Earth-based telescope pictures.
The success of Mariner 10 in attaining&emdash;and exceeding&emdash;its goals is attributable to the
dedicated effort of the relatively small but exceedingly competent and highly motivated group of men and
women from universities, industry, and government who made up the Mariner Venus/ Mercury 1973 project
team.
Mariner 10 visited Venus once and Mercury three times in a period of a little over 500 days on a voyage of
more than a billion kilometers. Shortly after the spacecraft left Earth it was oriented to the Earth and the
Moon and returned the first of over 8000 pictures that were taken throughout its trip. These pictures of the
Earth and Moon provided a calibration for later pictures of Venus and Mercury.
During the cruise from Earth to Venus, Mariner 10 acquired data about the environment of interplanetary
space and obtained information about the comet Kohoutek, which passed by the Sun shortly after the launch.
On February 5, 1974, after traveling 236 million kilometers, Mariner 10 skimmed past Venus within 12
kilometers of the preplanned aim point. Over 3500 pictures were obtained as the spacecraft first saw a thin
crescent and then the full face of Venus. These photos revealed a global distribution of ultraviolet clouds
which rotate about the planet some 50 times faster than the planet rotates on its axis.
On March 29, 1974, following several additional course corrections which were made after leaving Venus,
the spacecraft reached its primary goal: Mercury. Man obtained for the first time brilliantly clear pictures of
this planet.
Mercury looks a great deal like the Moon. However, it has a dense interior and unexpectedly possesses a
weak magnetic field. Mariner's cameras also revealed surface features not previously seen on other planets.
The surface of Mercury records the early history of the cataclysmic events that occurred during the formation
of our solar system. The primordial state of the planet's surface, when studied in combination with similar
data obtained from the Moon and Mars, should provide a great step forward in our understanding of the origin
and evolution of the solar system and thus of our planet Earth.
[
v
] Even though the spacecraft experienced several serious problems during its trip to Mercury, and its gas
supply nearly ran out, it performed its basic job flawlessly, and plans were laid for a return visit to Mercury
about 6 months later.
Through the efforts of an ingenious and dedicated operations team the art of "solar sailing" was perfected and
the spacecraft's gas usage was greatly reduced, thus permitting not one but two returns to Mercury. These
bonus revisits provided additional pictures of Mercury's surface, including a spectacular view of the planet's
south pole. The third encounter unequivocally confirmed the existence of Mercury's magnetic field.
1 of 2
2/17/2008 11:01 AM
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]