12 Facts About Mariner 10

Mariner 10 was an American robotic space probe launched by NASA on 3 November 1973, to fly by the planets Mercury and Venus.

Mariner 10 was launched approximately two years after Mariner 9 and was the last spacecraft in the Mariner program.

Mariner 10 was the first spacecraft to make use of an interplanetary gravitational slingshot maneuver, using Venus to bend its flight path and bring its perihelion down to the level of Mercury's orbit.

Mariner 10 used the solar radiation pressure on its solar panels and its high-gain antenna as a means of attitude control during flight, the first spacecraft to use active solar pressure control.

Components on Mariner 10 can be categorized into four groups based on their common function.

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Mariner 10 determined its attitude using two optical sensors, one pointed at the Sun, and the other at a bright star, usually Canopus; additionally, the probe's three gyroscopes provided a second option for calculating the attitude.

Boeing finished building the spacecraft at the end of June 1973, and Mariner 10 was delivered from Seattle to JPL's headquarters in California, where JPL comprehensively tested the integrity of the spacecraft and its instruments.

Mariner 10 built upon observations made by Mariner 5 six years earlier; importantly, Mariner 10 had a camera whereas the prior mission lacked one.

Earth-based ultra-violet observation had shown some indistinct blotching even before Mariner 10, but the detail seen by Mariner was a surprise to most researchers.

Mariner 10 is presumably still orbiting the Sun, although its electronics have probably been damaged by the Sun's radiation.

Mariner 10 has not been spotted or tracked from Earth since it stopped transmitting.

Mariner 10 discovered that Mercury has a tenuous atmosphere consisting primarily of helium, as well as a magnetic field and a large iron-rich core.