Headline: Mercury Byline: Peter N. Spotts Date: 01/18/2001 Mercury, the Rodney Dangerfield of planets, is finally getting respect. For some 25 years, the tiny planet could light a fire under only a handful of solar-system scientists. After Mariner 10's three fly-bys in the mid-1970s, many astronomers dismissed the planet as too boring - too much like Earth's moon to be worth the price of an orbiter. Now, however, Mercury's stock is rising. Last fall, the European Space Agency approved an ambitious 2009 mission - a pair of orbiters and a surface probe - to study the first rock from the Sun. The United States is building a Mercury orbiter for launch in 2004. And Japan hopes to launch its own Mercury mission in 2005. Click here to email this story to a friend: http://www.csmonitor.com/cgi-bin/send-story?2001/01/18/text/p15s1.txt Click here to read this story online: http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/01/18/fp15s1-csm.shtml == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
