MESO

Last Updated: August 9, 2004
 

Two drawings of the proposed ESRO Mercury probe MESO.
Image at left reproduced from the ESRO-ELDO Bulletin

In 1968, ESRO (European Space Research Organization), one of the two European space agencies (ESA was born some years later) asked for proposals for a major scientific project. Details of the various projects were discussed in a symposium in Paris on May 5 and 6, 1969.
Among many Earth orbiting scientific satellite proposals, there was the proposal for a European (or possibly joint ESRO/NASA) mission to fly-by Mercury.
The probe was proposed by Germany's MBB (Messerschmitt-Boelkov-Blohm) company and was called MESO (MErcury SOnde, thanks to Ferenc Horvai for finding the meaning of the acronym).
It was to be a 400 kg mass spacecraft carrying instruments to study the Hermean surface and atmosphere (if there was one) and the interplanetary medium to 0.4 AU from the Sun.
The probe was to be launched by an American Atlas-Centaur rocket with a third stage added in 1975 and was to have flown by Mercury four months after launch.
The proposals were evaluated by ESRO's Council in July 1969 and MESO was rejected as "premature".

A comparison between MESO and NASA's Mariner-10 (the first and so far only spacecraft to fly-by Mercury) follows:
 

	MESO	Mariner-10
Mass (kg)	400	502.9
Launcher	3-stage Atlas-Centaur	Atlas-Centaur+TE-M-364-4
Mission Design	1 fly-by	1 fly-by of Venus 3 fly-bys of Mercury
Launch	1975	November 3, 1973

Scientific Instruments
 

	MESO	Mariner-10
Photometer	X
Polarimeter	X
Infrared Radiometer	X	X
Microwave Radiometer	X
TV Camera	X (2)	X (2)
Magnetometer	X	X (2)
Plasma Analyser	X	X
Charged Particle Telescope	X	X
Micrometeorite Detector	X	X
Ultraviolet Spectrometer		X (2)

Bibliography
Mercury Probe; ESRO-ELDO Bulletin No.5, May 1969
Wilson, A.: Solar System Log, London, Jane's, p. 80

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