There is a lot of activity in space at the moment ....
Around the planet Mercury, the resilient probe of the Messenger mission, that has circled that planet since 2011, has crashed into Mercury at a very great speed (8,750mph or 14,000km/h - covering 2.4 miles (3.9km) every second), sometime yesterday. I say resilient, as it was never expected to last more than a couple of years, but somehow, through clever use of fuel (despite orbiting on the ecliptic, which means it has to use fuel to keep in that orbit), it has managed to orbit over 3,000 times, and in the process, thrown much of what we thought we knew about this planet into the garbage bin .... perhaps the most surprising fact is that it found water ice in the dark polar craters (which perhaps suggests that Mercury started life much further out from the Sun).
Meanwhile, much closer to home, in fact in near Earth orbit, the Russians have lost control of an unmanned ferry for the International Space Station ..... its expected to crash back to Earth also in the next few days. When we say 'crash', there's no need to duck as it predicted to burn up when it hits the atmosphere .... well mostly.
Around the planet Mercury, the resilient probe of the Messenger mission, that has circled that planet since 2011, has crashed into Mercury at a very great speed (8,750mph or 14,000km/h - covering 2.4 miles (3.9km) every second), sometime yesterday. I say resilient, as it was never expected to last more than a couple of years, but somehow, through clever use of fuel (despite orbiting on the ecliptic, which means it has to use fuel to keep in that orbit), it has managed to orbit over 3,000 times, and in the process, thrown much of what we thought we knew about this planet into the garbage bin .... perhaps the most surprising fact is that it found water ice in the dark polar craters (which perhaps suggests that Mercury started life much further out from the Sun).
Meanwhile, much closer to home, in fact in near Earth orbit, the Russians have lost control of an unmanned ferry for the International Space Station ..... its expected to crash back to Earth also in the next few days. When we say 'crash', there's no need to duck as it predicted to burn up when it hits the atmosphere .... well mostly.
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| Mercury Rising |
