The space probe, launched in 2004, will collide with Mercury, more than 3.91 kilometers per second, the side farthest planet from Earth, which will prevent NASA engineers to see in real time the exact location of the impact.
The last maneuver to prevent the probe from the collision with the planet through device orbit corrections, is scheduled for April 24.
After that, NASA explains in a statement, the probe can not escape the strong gravitational pull exerted by the sun on the planet closest to the “king star.”
The Messenger, NASA spacecraft is in orbit around Mercury since March 18, 2011, after making a more than 6.5-year journey.
Device’s observations allowed to, for example, support the hypothesis that Mercury has ice water in abundance in its polar craters that are permanently shaded.
According to the scientific team of the mission, the water now stored in ice deposits in the polar craters appears to have been transported to Mercury by comets and asteroids crashing into its surface.
In addition to the scientific findings, the mission has successfully tested new technologies that enabled protect the instruments and electronic components of direct solar radiation, given the proximity of the planet to the sun.
Another probe, BepiColombo will be launched in January 2017, also to study Mercury, but a Euro-Japanese mission with Portuguese technology, Active Space Technologies, who designed the mechanical and thermal insulation of one of the instruments.
tags: Mercury, Messenger,
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