Topic: MESSENGER team releases first global map of mercury

[sam]

NASA's MESSENGER mission team and cartographic experts from the U. S. Geological Survey have created a critical tool for planning the first orbital observations of the planet Mercury - a global mosaic of the planet that will help scientists pinpoint craters, faults and other features for observation. The map was created from images taken during the MESSENGER spacecraft's three flybys of the planet and those of Mariner 10 in the 1970s. A presentation on the new global mosaic is being given today at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

http://www.physorg.com/news180114935.html

[Clive]

Messenger is yet another one of those highly successful NASA spacecraft.  And the best is yet to come when it goes into orbit around Mercury in 2011.  

[sam]

indeed, and it was relatively cheap. much more effective than human exploration.