Bethesda, January 14: Krimigis lecture on MESSENGER spacecraft

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From: "HR-Net News Distribution Manager" <dist@hri.org>

Originally From: Zoe Kosmidou <zkosmidou at greekculture.us>

The Hellenic Society Prometheas Invites you to a lecture by:

Dr. Stamatios M. Krimigis

Space Department Head Emeritus At Johns Hopkins University and Principal Investigator on several NASA spacecraft, including Voyagers 1 and 2 to the Outer Planets and the Voyager Interstellar Mission; also, member, Academy of Athens

“MESSENGER” TO ORBIT MERCURY The Technological Challenge

Planetary exploration with robotic spacecraft began in 1962 with Mariner 2 and continues to this day, with missions such as Voyager and Cassini-Huygens. Exploring Mercury, however, has been a challenge until now because the solar intensity there is 11 times as much as at Earth. The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft was launched in August 2004 with the aim of orbiting the closest planet to the Sun, and will be inserted into orbit on March 18, 2011. Designing and operating a spacecraft for such an environment has proved a major technological challenge, and is illustrative of robotic space exploration. The mission implementation took place in the Space Department of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. The science objectives and the technology development for their implementation will be described, and the findings from the three flybys of Mercury during the past two years will be presented and discussed.

The lecture will be in English. Short annual membership meeting will follow; the program will conclude with a reception.

Friday, January 14, 2011 at 8:00 pm. St. George Greek Orthodox Church, Founders Hall 7701 Bradley Boulevard, Bethesda, MD 20817

Upcoming event: Greek Letters Day Celebration, Friday January 28, 2011 8:00 PM at St. George Church. Speaker: Professor Theo Theoharis, Harvard University

The Hellenic Society Prometheas, Inc., 6700 Landon Lane, Bethesda, MD 20817, Tel 301-229-9389 http://www.prometheas.org/

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