Mariner 10

Mariner 10 was a robotic NASA space probe. It was launched on November 3, 1973, to fly by the planets Mercury and Venus. It passed Mercury three times and photographed much of it. Mariner 10 is no longer working today but is still orbiting the Sun. It was launched about two years after Mariner 9 and was the last spacecraft in the Mariner program. Mariner 10 was the first space probe sent to Mercury.

Mariner 10 Media

• 

  Mariner 10 (The Mariner 10 was a probe sent to Mercury. It managed to map about 40-45% of Mercury.)

• 

  Smithsonian display of the Mariner 10 flight spare.

• 

  An artists' impression of the Mariner 10 mission. The first mission to perform an interplanetary gravity assist, it used a flyby of the planet Venus in order to decrease its perihelion. This would allow the spacecraft to meet Mercury on three occasions in 1974 and 1975.

• 

  An illustration showing the instruments of Mariner 10.

• 

  Cutaway view of one Mariner 10 television camera.

• 

  Mariner 10 imaged the Earth and Moon shortly after launch.

• 

  AtlasCentaurlaunchwithMariner

• 

  The trajectory of Mariner 10 spacecraft: since launch on 3 November 1973, to first fly-by of Mercury on 29 March 1974.

• 

  The Mariner 10 flight spare