Messenger probe takes first orbital shots of Mercury

[Draykov]

http://www.space.com/11254-nasa-photos- ... craft.html

The first spacecraft ever to circle Mercury has beamed home the first-ever photo taken of the small rocky planet from orbit, showing a stark landscape peppered with craters...Messenger arrived at Mercury on March 17, more than 6 1/2 years after its launch from Earth.

[Admiral Netsooj]

Looks awfully like the Moon. Pretty cool anyways.

[KDog]

Any time there's new photos of another planet, I get excited!

[Stargorger]

Yeah I was disappointed too. Not that I was expecting Pandora or anything, but I was hoping for some more varied terrain at least: it does look exactly like the moon, albeit less pock-marked.

[aotus]

Wow, it has been so many years since MESSENGER launched that I forgot about it!

But I suppose that the long travel time had a point. As I recall, they saved about $100 million in launch and fuel costs by using multiple gravity-assist maneuvers instead of a straight-to-Mercury trajectory.

[Sir Michael Le Fanu]

Freaking cool. How does it have "ice caps" if its so close to the sun?

[Stargorger]

Freaking cool. How does it have "ice caps" if its so close to the sun?

They could be nitrogen ice (or maybe not, but you know what I mean...a chemical). Or...?? Maybe its orbit is such that the polar region is kept normally un-exposed?

[Sir Michael Le Fanu]

Freaking cool. How does it have "ice caps" if its so close to the sun?

They could be nitrogen ice (or maybe not, but you know what I mean...a chemical). Or...?? Maybe its orbit is such that the polar region is kept normally un-exposed?

Excellent point.