The 2004 Mercury

NASA has successfully launched the Messenger spacecraft which will study our solar system's innermost planet. The last flyby of Mercury was done by Mariner 10 back in the 70's, and data from that mission ended up raising more questions than it answered. By the time Messenger's work is done, scientists hope to learn why Mercury is so unusually dense, why it has such a strong magnetic field, whether there is water in the shaded region's of the planet's poles, and if there are any hidden weapons of mass destruction present. Needless to say, France is vehemently opposed to the mission.

Despite Mercury's relative proximity, the spacecraft won't be arriving at its destination until 2011. Due to reasons having to do with weight and fuel storage, Messenger will perform a number of flybys of massive celestial objects. These manuevers will in turn harness the powerful gravitational fields of Earth, Venus, Mercury, and Michael Moore to first speed up the ship and then slow it down before finally allowing it to slip into orbit.