NASA‘s Messenger spacecraft, which has been orbiting Mercury for more than four years, will crash into the Planet April 30th, when it runs out of propellant. The Messenger spacecraft will impact Mercury at more than 3.91 kilometres per second on the side of the planet facing away from Earth.

MESSENGER stands for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging. One important finding of MESSENGER is that Mercury harbours abundant frozen water and other volatile materials in its permanently shadowed polar craters. MESSENGER has also found higher-than-expected potassium and sulfur levels on the planet’s surface.

The spacecraft was launched in 2004 and it traveled for more than six and a half years before it was inserted into orbit around Mercury on March, 2011.

The final maneuver of MESSENGER will be on Friday, April 24 with the left out fuel. This maneuver is expected to deplete all the remaining helium gas.

Tidbits

1. Mercury is the smallest and closest to the Sun of the eight planets in the Solar System.
2. Mercury orbits about 35,983,125 miles from the sun.
3. The planet is named after the Roman deity Mercury, the messenger to the gods.
4. Other than MESSENGER, another spacecraft have visited Mercury. ie Mariner 10 by NASA.
5. Mercury has no natural satellites and  it has an orbital period of about 88 Earth days.