Sad Death of the Messenger

Tomorrow, the 30th of April, Messenger's fuel cells run dry and she'll begin her very rapid descent toward Mercury. The probe has been exploring our near-sun neighbor for close on to a decade, but her journey now comes to an end. She's been pumping info to us since 2011 when she went into orbit around Mercury (she launched in 2004).

Its kind of a sad fate really. This robotic probe sent from Earth to explore new worlds has been lighting up the sky of Mercury for several years, but it ends in a heap of wreckage on the planet's surface. Her heat shields destroyed she'll probably burn up and slowly disintegrate.

It seems that some more noble doom should be given to such vessels. Maybe a trajectory that ends in the Sun.

How cool would that be? To merge with the star that sits at the center of all we do and are?