Who's the crew?

 That's TMac3000. He is our commander, and the creator of this project. Yesterday, he did the orbit insertion around Mercury!

  And here is me! Felipi1205. I'm the solar specialist number one, and I was the pilot of the Lunar mission during the first days.

  RickD is our solar specialist number two. He is going to help me during the deployment of the base, and he helped during the orbit insertion.

  Mojoey is from the Geology team. He was the commander of the Lunar Mission, and took us back on the same mission...

And Finally, Lydia. She is working in the Geology team.

 Soon I'll post about the spacecraft, the mission and the base....

We're around Mercury!

Today, the spacecraft Odyssey entered in the orbit, after a long burn (20 minutes!). The burn started at 01:09:28 UTC. The spacecraft will get closer, and we will explore the planet in the next hours. Tomorrow, we will land in the planet!
 Now, Tmac3000, our commander, is lowering the periapsis. We will see our landing site soon... The Solar Team is going to check the level of radiation that is affecting the planet, and see how it's reacting to the solar peak in this year. And the solar team will check the temperature levels in the surface, to see how the surface reacts with the Sun's radiation.  The geology team is going to see the reflection levels, to search for water, or another reflective material.

Mercury, here we go!!!!

 The Odyssey spacecraft is now on your way to the planet Mercury. After a long burn, the spacecraft is now leaving the Earth and going for the final trajectory. The Orbit Insertion is expected to happen in the end of the year, probably in August. The Odyssey is carrying the crew that is going to be the first crew to land in the planet Mercury. They'll see the Sun during the Solar Maximum, between 2012 and 2013.
The Geology team is going to bring several samples back to Earth. In the next year, the crew will be replaced, and new astronauts will land on the planet.

Refueling Mission

 Some days ago, the Chronus launched and docked with the Odyssey spacecraft. A short refueling mission. The commander, codename "sorindafabico", controlled the spacecraft and sucessfully refueled the Odyssey spacecraft. This was the last mission before the final mission, in the next month. The maintance of the Chronus is going very fast, as the spacecraft is going to be used another time to send the crew of the Odyssey to the spacecraft in LEO...

The Lunar Mission.

Spacecraft : Odyssey
TLI date : March 25th
LOI date : March 30th
Landing date : March 31th
End of the Mission : April 7th
 The Lunar Mission (also called Lunar Hop) is a small mission to the Brighton Beach base. The Chronus spacecraft, a XR5, launched from the Cape Canaveral during the dusk of March, 24th. The Chronus was going to the Arrow Freighter number one, the Odyssey. The crew of the Chronus (TMac3000, RickD, Mojoey and Felipi1205) docked with the Odyssey almost one hour after the launch. Felipi1205 and Mojoey were transfered. At March 26th, the Odyssey burned the engines and the target was the Moon. The spacecraft is currenctly in a circular orbit. The spacecraft woke up one hour before the LOI, at March, 30th. The LOI happened at 11:10 UTC, when the main engines of the Odyssey turned on and slowed the spacecraft down. During the midnight of March, 30th, the spacecraft crossed the point with the lower altitude of the orbit, the PeA, and burned the engines again to circularize the orbit. At March, 31th, the Odyssey landed on the base of Brighton Beach, with the help of the command center at Houston. The spacecraft landed on the landing pad 4, exactly as planned. The Arrow slowed down, passed over the base and started the descent. The Odyssey touched the landing very smoothly, and the crew landed...
  During the weekend, the crew replaced the hover engines and worked in the surface.
 In the second day of April, the spacecraft lifted off from the Brighton Beach base. The pilot put the spacecraft in a stable orbit and passed the control of the spacecraft to the commander.
 The commander, mojoey, controlled the spacecraft during the return mission. At April, 06th, the Chronus launched again and docked with the Odyssey. The crew of the Odyssey came back to the ground at 06:10 UTC at April 7th.
 The mission is over. The Odyssey is waiting for the mission to Mercury. This short flight replaced the engines and repaired some systems on Brighton Beach.
 Now the final countdown to the Trans-Mercurian Injection is running!

Welcome!

Our first post! In this blog we will show the updates of the Iron Hill project.       What is the Iron Hill Project?
  Well, the Iron Hill Project is a space mission to Mercury, the small rock of Iron. Real? No!!! We are using the Orbiter space flight simulator, the best space simulator ever created. You can download it   here: http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/
    Who are the "astronauts"?
  -The commander is called TMac3000. He had the idea of this mission, and the did the selection of the crew;
  -I'm the Solar Scientist number 1. My codename is Felipi1205 . I'm the pilot of the Odyssey in the Lunar mission (soon you'll know more about them);
  -The Solar Scientist number 2 is my friend, RickD. He was the copilot in the Chronus during the Lunar mission;
  -Mojoey is the first Geologist of the crew. He is my commander in the lunar mission;
  -Lydia is the second Geologist of the crew.
  -Sorindafabico is the second brazilian of the team. He is the pilot of the Chronus in the mission to Mercury!
     How can I contact the team?
   You can fid us in this forum: http://www.orbiter-forum.com/. You need to register to talk with us...
   That's all! We see you in the next posts!