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MESSENGER

The MESSENGER (Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging) mission was launched in August 2004 on a long journey to Mercury. The spacecraft completed one flyby of Earth, two of Venus, and three of Mercury before entering Mercury's orbit in March 2011. The orbital mission has been extended to March 2013.

March 8, 2013, MESSENGER Release 9. MESSENGER Release 9 includes raw and calibrated data acquired through September 17, 2012. This is also the first release to include derived data products for most instruments. Follow the links below for details.

Instruments and Archives

Instrument PDS Archives
EPPS (Energetic Particle and Plasma Spectrometer) EPPS Archive
(at the PPI Node)
GRS (Gamma Ray Spectrometer) and
NS (Neutron Spectrometer)		 GRS and NS Archives
MAG (Magnetometer) MAG Archive
(at the PPI Node)
MASCS (Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer) includes:
   UVVS (Ultraviolet/Visible Spectrometer)
   VIRS (Visible/Infrared Spectrograph)		 MASCS Archive
 
MDIS (Mercury Dual Imaging System) MDIS Archive
(at the Imaging Node)
MLA (Mercury Laser Altimeter) MLA Archive
Radio Science Radio Science Archive
XRS (X-Ray Spectrometer) XRS Archive
SPICE (Geometry and Navigation) SPICE Archive
at  the NAIF Node
All Ground Calibration Data

Online Tools

Mercury Orbital Data Explorer (ODE) - Provides search, display, and download  tools for selected MESSENGER data sets.
  Mercury Footprint Coverage Explorer - Part of the Mercury ODE, this page links to product coverage maps in Google Earth and other formats.
  MESSENGER QuickMap - This simple, interactive map interface used by the MESSENGER science team is now available to the public.

More Information

Release Schedule

The MESSENGER Project releases data at irregular intervals based on mission events.

Here is the release schedule through the remainder of the primary mission and the extended mission.

Release Data Acquisition Release to Public
1 N/A
(Ground calibration data)		 Not online due to
low demand;
available on request
2 Aug. 3, 2004 - Jun. 5, 2007
(Earth and Venus flybys)		 Dec. 15, 2007
3 Jun. 6, 2007 - Jan. 14, 2008
(First Mercury flyby)		 Jul. 15, 2008
4 Jan. 15, 2008 - Oct. 20, 2008
(Second Mercury flyby)		 Apr. 15, 2009
5 Oct. 21, 2008 - Sep. 29, 2009
(Third Mercury flyby)		 Mar. 15, 2010
6 Sep. 30, 2009 - May 18, 2011
(Mercury orbit insertion + 2 months)		 Sep. 8, 2011
7 May 19, 2011 - Sep. 17, 2011
(Next 4 months of orbital operations)		 Mar. 8, 2012
8 Sep. 18, 2011 - Mar. 25, 2012
(Mar. 17 is end of primary mission; Mar. 25 is end of second full solar day of science operations)		 Sep. 7, 2012
9 Mar. 26, 2012 - Sep. 17, 2012
 Mar. 8, 2013
10 Sep. 18, 2012 - Mar. 17, 2013
(End of extended mission)		 Sep. 6, 2013
11 Aug. 3, 2004 - Mar. 17, 2013
(Final derived products)		 Mar. 7, 2014

 

 What's New

March 8, 2013. Release 9 data are online. Raw and calibrated data go through September 17, 2012, and derived data for most instruments through March 25, 2012.

Sept. 7, 2012. Release 8 data are now online, covering the first 12 months of orbital operations (through March 25, 2012).

March 8, 2012. Release 7 data are now online, covering the first six months of orbital operations (through September 17, 2011).

Sept. 8, 2011. Release 6 data are now online, covering the period after the third flyby through the first two months of orbit around Mercury (October 15, 2009, through May 17, 2011).

April 27, 2010. MESSENGER MASCS CDR data is now online.

March 15, 2010. Release 5 data are now online, covering the period through the third Mercury flyby (October 14, 2009).

October 26, 2009. MESSENGER Ground Calibration saved data have been put online.

April 15, 2008. Release 4 data are now online, covering the period through the second Mercury flyby (October 20, 2008).

July 13, 2008. Release 3 data are now online, covering the period after the second Venus flyby through the first Mercury flyby (January 14, 2008).

December 15, 2007. Release 2 (first science data release) is now online.

 
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Curator: Susan Slavney
NASA Official: Raymond E. Arvidson
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