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MESSENGER

The MESSENGER (Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging) mission orbited Mercury from March 2011 to April 2015, after flybys of Earth, Venus, and Mercury.

January 31, 2024. The Nathair Facula Topography and Photometric Cube Data bundle is released.

December 18, 2018. MESSENGER PDS4 Archives

MESSENGER archives at the Geosciences Node have been migrated to the PDS4 standard--in particular, the  GRS, NS, MLA, XRS, and derived Radio Science archives. The remaining archives are in the process of being migrated to PDS4 by other PDS nodes, as noted below.

The original PDS3 data products, labels, and documentation remain available in their original archive volumes (links below). PDS4 labels and documentation have been added to the archive volumes. The original data files themselves are unchanged.

 For more information about the migration of these data sets, see geo_notes_and_errata.pdf in the document directory/collection of the migrated archives.

Orbital Data Explorer users: ODE Mercury has been adapted to search for MESSENGER products using the PDS4 metadata. 

Instruments and Archives

Instrument PDS Archives
EPPS (Energetic Particle and Plasma Spectrometer) EPPS Archive
PDS4 at the PPI Node
GRS (Gamma Ray Spectrometer) and
NS (Neutron Spectrometer)		 GRS and NS Archives PDS4 at the Geo Node
MAG (Magnetometer) MAG Archive
PDS4 at the PPI Node
MASCS (Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer) includes:
   UVVS (Ultraviolet/Visible Spectrometer)
   VIRS (Visible/Infrared Spectrograph)		 MASCS Archive
PDS3 at the Geo Node

PDS4 at the Atmospheres Node
  
MDIS (Mercury Dual Imaging System) MDIS Archive
PDS3 at the Imaging Node
MLA (Mercury Laser Altimeter) MLA Archive
PDS4 at the Geo Node
Radio Science Radio Science Archive
PDS4 at the Geo Node
XRS (X-Ray Spectrometer) XRS Archive
PDS4 at the Geo Node
SPICE (Geometry and Navigation) SPICE Archive
PDS3 at  the NAIF Node
All Ground Calibration Data
PDS3 safed data at the Geo Node

Derived Products from Individual Investigators

Investigator / Program PDS Archives
Noam Izenberg / PDART 2014 MESSENGER Advanced Products from MASCS, GRS and NS (PDS4)
David Trang /
DDAP		 Mercury Space Weathering Maps (PDS4)
Deborah Domingue / SSW Nathair Facula Topography and Photometric Cube Data (PDS4)

 

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

Release Data Acquisition Release to Public
16 Delivery of final extended mission products May 12, 2017
15 Aug. 3, 2004 - ~Apr. 30, 2015
(Final delivery of advanced products; redelivery of previously delivered calibrated and advanced products with final SPICE and corrections)		 May 6, 2016
14 Aug. 3, 2004 - ~Apr. 30, 2015
(End of extended mission 2 operations; final delivery of raw and calibrated products)		 Oct. 9, 2015
13 Aug. 3, 2004 - Sep. 17, 2014 Mar. 6, 2015
12 Aug. 3, 2004 - Mar. 17, 2014 Sep. 5, 2014
11 Aug. 3, 2004 - Sep. 17, 2013
 Mar. 7, 2014
10 Sep. 18, 2012 - Mar. 17, 2013
(End of extended mission 1)		 Sep. 6, 2013
9 Mar. 26, 2012 - Sep. 17, 2012
 Mar. 8, 2013
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
7 May 19, 2011 - Sep. 17, 2011
(Next 4 months of orbital operations)		 Mar. 8, 2012
6 Sep. 30, 2009 - May 18, 2011
(Mercury orbit insertion + 2 months)		 Sep. 8, 2011
5 Oct. 21, 2008 - Sep. 29, 2009
(Third Mercury flyby)		 Mar. 15, 2010
4 Jan. 15, 2008 - Oct. 20, 2008
(Second Mercury flyby)		 Apr. 15, 2009
3 Jun. 6, 2007 - Jan. 14, 2008
(First Mercury flyby)		 Jul. 15, 2008
2 Aug. 3, 2004 - Jun. 5, 2007
(Earth and Venus flybys)		 Dec. 15, 2007
1 N/A
(Ground calibration data)		 Not online due to
low demand;
available on request

 

 What's New

January 31, 2024. The Nathair Facula Topography and Photometric Cube Data bundle is released.

September 7, 2022. A copy of the migrated Radio Science raw data archive (PDS4) is now available at the Geosciences Node.

August 31, 2021. A new Mercury SHBDR gravity model is released.

February 19, 2020. A new Mercury SHBDR gravity model is released.

August 28, 2019. New Mercury gravity models are released.

May 14, 2019. Mercury Space Weathering Maps from David Trang are released.

May 13, 2019. The second and final set of MESSENGER Advanced Products from Noam Izenberg are released.

May 12, 2017. MESSENGER Release 16, the final release, includes new and revised products and new tutorials.

March 15, 2017. MESSENGER Advanced Products from Noam Izenberg are released.

August 17, 2016. An error was discovered in the photometric normalization section of the MASCS calibration pipeline.

May 6, 2015. MESSENGER Release 15 includes revised calibrated data products, and revised and new advanced data products, covering the entire mission.

Oct. 9, 2015. MESSENGER Release 14 includes raw and calibrated data through the end of orbital operations on April 30, 2015.

May 8, 2015. Rev. C of the MESSENGER Data Management and Archive Plan has been posted.

March 6, 2015. MESSENGER Release 13 includes raw and calibrated data through September 17, 2014, and advanced data products through March 17, 2014.

Sept. 29, 2014. New SHADR and SHBDR Radio Science products have been released.

Sept. 5, 2014. MESSENGER Release 12 includes raw and calibrated data through March 17, 2014.

April 14, 2014. Corrections to XRS CDR products have been posted.

March 27, 2014. An error has been corrected in the Radio Science SHADR model. 

March 7, 2014. MESSENGER Release 11 includes raw and calibrated data through September 17, 2013, and advanced data products through March 17, 2013.

Sept. 6, 2013. MESSENGER Release 10 includes raw and calibrated data acquired from September 18, 2012, through March 17, 2013.

August 23, 2013. MASCS CDR and DDR Reader software is available.

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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