The Final Days

Though NASA MESSENGER days are numbered, the spacecraft will continue to acquire new data sets and transmit them back to Earth during its final days. Shown here is a high-resolution view snapped near Heemskerck Rupes, named for the Dutch ship that explored Australia and New Zealand in 1642-1643. The total number of images that MDIS has acquired and returned to Earth since entering Mercury orbit in March 2011 is currently 277,447, which is many more than originally planned for MESSENGER's one-year primary mission! In the next few days, approximately 500 additional images are planned to be received back at Earth, though the spacecraft is expected to impact the planet on April 30 with more than a thousand images still on its recorder, never to be seen. This is by design, as it is better to collect more data than can be transmitted than end the mission having been able to possibly have done more! Check out some highlights from the MESSENGER mission by visiting this image collection, or watch MESSENGER team members discuss the mission in these recently posted videos. Date acquired: April 26, 2015 Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 72384761 Image ID: 8400449 Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) Center Latitude: 25.1° Center Longitude: 234.4° E Resolution: 6.7 meters/pixel Scale: The bottom of this image is about 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) across Incidence Angle: 57.9° Emission Angle: 56.5° Phase Angle: 40.7° http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19438