Planetary Data System Release 7: Data Collected by MESSENGER

The Planetary Data System is pleased to announce Release 7 of data collected by the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) mission. After a 6.6-year cruise phase, during which the spacecraft flew by Earth once, Venus twice, and Mercury three times, MESSENGER entered orbit about the innermost planet on 18 March 2011, becoming the first spacecraft ever to do so, and initiating a one-year phase of orbital operations. NASA recently extended MESSENGER’s orbital operations for a second year.

This delivery includes formatted raw and calibrated data for all seven MESSENGER science instruments and the radio science investigation for months three through six of orbital operations (18 May 2011 through 17 September 2011). SPICE data from launch through the period of this release are also included. With this release, data are now available to the public for the first full Mercury solar day of MESSENGER orbital operations.

All data sets in this MESSENGER release can be accessed from: http://pds.nasa.gov/subscription_service/SS-20120308.html

To access all data archived in the PDS, go to: http://pds.nasa.gov

The ACT-REACT QuickMap interactive Web interface to MESSENGER data is available through links at:

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/ and http://www.nasa.gov/messenger

The MDIS mosaics can be downloaded from: http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/the_mission/mosaics.html