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Messenger spacecraft crashes at 14,000 km/h into Mercury

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Africanus

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Via BBC:
After more than a decade in space and four years orbiting Mercury, Nasa's Messenger mission is set to reach its explosive conclusion.
The spacecraft is expected to crash into the planet's surface at 20:26 BST on Thursday; it made its final powered manoeuvre on 28 April.
After reaching Mercury in 2011, Messenger has far exceeded its primary mission plan of one year in orbit.
It is only slowly losing altitude but will hit at 8,750mph (14,000km/h).
That means the 513kg craft, which is only 3m across, will blast a 16m crater into an area near the planet's north pole, according to scientists' calculations.
All of Messenger's fuel, half its weight at launch, is completely spent; its last four manoeuvres, extending the flight as far as possible, have been accomplished by venting the helium gas normally used to pressurise actual rocket fuel into the thrusters.
The high-speed collision, 12 times faster than sound, will obliterate this history-making craft.
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It already crashed about one hour ago. It's approximated that 1000 photos of Mercury will be lost in the collision. What an impressive feat! Extending its time through such ingenuity.

Edit: Mea culpa
Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-32510911
 
When do we get the pics?

Curious to see thie puzzled look on aliens faces as a man made asteroid comes down on them at a few thousand miles an hour.
 
LookAtMeGo said:
Those 1000 pictures "destroyed" probably had aliens in them.
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image.php
 
Rentahamster said:
Why do they need to crash it? Why not just use it until it simply doesn't work anymore?
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They didn't crash it necessarily. It has been used to the point that it doesn't work anymore. A boost of Helium last Friday lifted the minimum altitude to 18.2 kilometers from 8.4 kilometers. A second maneuver on Tuesday was performed similarly but was less successful. But as the Helium and fuel tanks have run low (And as Helium was not meant to be a fuel source) it had to give eventually.
 
Africanus said:
They didn't crash it necessarily. It has been used to the point that it doesn't work anymore. A boost of Helium last Friday lifted the minimum altitude to 18.2 kilometers from 8.4 kilometers. A second maneuver on Tuesday was performed similarly but was less successful. But as the Helium and fuel tanks have run low (And as Helium was not meant to be a fuel source) it had to give eventually.
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timetokill said:
They basically extended its life as long as they possibly could. Out of fuel. It was only meant to last a year and it lasted 4.

It served well.
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Megalodactyl said:
They pretty much have used it until it doesn't work anymore. They used the very last of it's ability to control it's direction to steer it into Mercury.
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It seems like they used more resources to expedite its inevitable crash. Why not just keep collecting data until it crashes naturally?


Stet said:
Sometimes crashing into a planet can give us data.
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If that was the case, they wouldn't have crashed it on the far side of the planet, right?
 
liliththepale said:
1000 images sounds like a lot but that's compared to the 270,000 it already successfully sent us.
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This is true!
Rentahamster said:
It seems like they used more resources to expedite its inevitable crash. Why not just keep collecting data until it crashes naturally?
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I suppose given the amount of capital that went into funding this project, they desired as much data as possible before it crashed. All of its systems were still in working order, it is only the fuel tank that ran out, given that they used much more of it than intended. Additional data shall come from what the crash site unearths as well, regardless of which side it collided into. The only difference is time and immediate confirmation.
 
More like a 14000km/hr improvised projectile jury-rigged to eliminate the latest threat to humanity.

Thank you, real MIB.

#BELIEVE
 
Africanus said:
Additional data shall come from what the crash site unearths as well, regardless of which side it collided into. The only difference is time and immediate confirmation.
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How are we going to observe the crash site? Once Mercury obscures the craft, any data gathered during the descent cant be transmitted to Earth, unless I'm misunderstanding how that works.
 
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