On Feb. 5, 1974, Mariner 10 became the first space probe to perform a gravity assist.
The spacecraft launched from pad 36A at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Weighing in at 1,100 pounds, Mariner 10 was to complete fly-bys of Venus and Mercury.
A gravity assist is used to conserve fuel during space travel. To perform a gravity assist, the craft must briefly enter the celestial body’s orbit while flying past it. The body’s gravitational force pulls the probe around the planet or moon and throws the probe out of its gravitational field much faster than it entered. Today, this method is used in almost all deep space missions to planets, moons, asteroids and everything else.
Mariner 10 was armed with several powerful instruments, including two telescopes and cameras, a high-gain antenna and a spectrometer to analyze the planets’ atmospheres. Powered by solar panels, scientists received about 2,700 images from just a few fly-bys.
Mariner 10 had many firsts to its name. Of course, it was the first to do a gravity assist, but it was also the first:
•To study two planets in one mission.
•To return data from a long-period comet.
•And to study Mercury.
Over three flybys, Mercury covered just about half of the planet’s surface. The mission ended when NASA lost contact with Mariner 10 in March 1975.
This information was gathered from nasa.gov.
