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Orbiting Planet Mercury: Engineering Innovations
Volume 34, Number 1 (2017)

This issue of the Johns Hopkins APL Technical Digest comes at the end of the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) mission—which flew the only spacecraft ever to orbit the planet Mercury, the Sun's closest neighbor. This compilation offers a culminating report highlighting the mission's applied innovations in engineering and operations. It is a retrospective on how the integrated system of systems performed and how it was operated in Mercury's hostile environment, managing risk to extend the mission's life to more than four times that required to achieve full mission success.

Orbiting Planet Mercury: Engineering Innovations—Guest Editors' Introduction Helene L. Winters and David G. Grant

MESSENGER Mission Overview Peter D. Bedini

MESSENGER: Mission Operations in Orbit at Mercury Andrew B. Calloway, Richard G. Shelton, and Eric D. Melin

Science Planning, Data Acquisition, Analysis, and Distribution for the MESSENGER Mission Susan L. Ensor, Alice F. Berman, Erick Malaret, Richard G. Shelton, and Robert J. Steele

MESSENGER Operational Influences and Environment G. Allan Holtzman, Andrew B. Calloway, Stephen E. Jaskulek, and Daniel T. Gallagher

Spacecraft Trajectory Planning and Execution for the MESSENGER Mission James V. McAdams, Christopher G. Bryan, Stewart S. Bushman, Carl S. Engelbrecht, Sarah H. Flanigan, and T. Adrian Hill

Maximizing MESSENGER's Science Return with Technologies and Innovation Robert. E. Gold, Stewart S. Bushman, Andrew B. Calloway, James V. McAdams, Daniel J. O'Shaughnessy, and Dipak K. Srinivasan

MESSENGER's Hover Campaign Daniel J. O'Shaughnessy, Stewart S. Bushman, Sarah H. Flanigan, Madeline K. Fosbury, and James V. McAdams

Science Results and Team Highlights