MESSENGER Surpasses 200,000 Orbital Images Of Mercury

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Link: MESSENGER Web Site

 

MESSENGER has now returned more than 200,000 images acquired from orbit about Mercury. The 1996 proposal for the mission promised a return of at least 1,000 images says Robert Gold, MESSENGER's Science Payload Manager. "We expected then that we would have some data compression that would probably raise the image total to somewhere near 2,000 images," says Gold, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), but scientists did not imagine then the degree to which MESSENGER would surpass that goal.

 

"Returning over 200,000 images from orbit about Mercury is an impressive accomplishment for the mission, and one I've been personally counting down for the last few months," says APL's Nancy Chabot, the Instrument Scientist for the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS). "However, I'm really more excited about the many thousands of images that are still in MESSENGER's future, especially those that we plan to acquire at low altitudes and will provide the highest resolution views yet of Mercury's surface."...

 

From the Global Mosaics gallery: Mosaic with 100% Coverage of Mercury's Surface [links to large image]

 

http://i.snag.gy/baxrF.jpg

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Link: Mercury MESSENGER Global DEM 665m (64ppd) | USGS Astrogeology Science Center

 

The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft completed its mission to acquire a rich variety of orbital data from the planet Mercury. Using the Integrated Software for Imagers and Spectrometers (ISIS3) and observations from Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) narrow-angle camera (NAC) and multispectral wide-angle camera (WAC), we derived a global digital elevation model (DEM) of Mercury.

 

We created the global DEM of Mercury from a least-squares bundle adjustment (jigsaw in ISIS3 [becker 2016]) of common features, measured as tie point coordinates in overlapping NAC and WAC-G filter images. The MDIS image inventory contains over 176,000 NAC and WAC-G observations with a very large variety of disparate geometric and illumination characteristics, and we encountered limitations to existing conventional control techniques in ISIS3 that required development of new software and techniques. Our main objectives were to 1) significantly improve image tie point matching accuracy while increasing control point density, and 2) greatly reduce the resources, both human and computer, required to control large image data sets. The new approach utilizes unsupervised image-to-image feature-based matching and control techniques that are well suited for scaling and distribution across compute cluster environments (Becker 2016).

 

http://astropedia.astrogeology.usgs.gov/download/Mercury/Topography/MESSENGER/thumbs/Mercury_Messenger_DEM_Global_665m_1024.jpg

 

Colourized image:

 

http://astropedia.astrogeology.usgs.gov/download/Mercury/Topography/MESSENGER/thumbs/Mercury_Messenger_USGS_ClrShade_Global_1024.jpg

 

Original images are large: 23040 x 11520.

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Link: Melown - 3D Map of Planet Mercury Based on NASA's MESSENGER Mission

 

An interactive map based on the topographic model of Mercury created from images collected by the MESSENGER mission's MDIS instrument between March 2011 and April 2015.

 

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Link: An ESRI story map: MESSENGER and the Science of Mercury

 

The MESSENGER spacecraft's name comes from “MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging,” highlighting the project’s broad range of scientific goals. MESSENGER was the first spacecraft to orbit the planet Mercury, and the spacecraft's seven scientific instruments and radio science investigation helped to unravel the history and evolution of the solar system's innermost planet. MESSENGER orbited Mercury from March 18, 2011 to April 30, 2015. Let's take a closer look at some of the fascinating things MESSENGER has taught us about the closest planet to the sun...