I didn't know / remember that there's been a spacecraft orbiting Venus for the past eight years... I guess there's not so much to take pictures of, unlike Mars or Saturn. Now that spacecraft is wrapping up its tour of duty, and will take one more for the team...
Venus Express Prepares to Descend into Hell
Venus is definitely not a friendly planet for humanity. Soviet landers that arrived on the surface a few decades back were crushed pretty quickly. Its surface temperature is more than 842 degrees Fahrenheit (450 degrees Celsius) and the atmosphere is full of noxious gases.
But descending into this pressure-filled cooker is exactly what Venus Express is going to do shortly. The European Space Agency spacecraft will conclude eight years of orbital operations with an attempt to fall into the planet. The maneuvers are complicated, and there’s no guarantee they will go as planned, but ESA plans to make the plunge by the end of this year.
For the better part of a decade, Venus Express has been orbiting the planet every 24 hours, swinging in an elliptical orbit that ranges from 155 miles (250 kilometers) to 41,010 miles (66,000 kilometers). But now the spacecraft is almost out of fuel, and will now be redirected for “experimental aerobreaking” to slow down through skimming the atmosphere.
The maneuvers will take place between June 18 and July 17, where controllers hope to gain some information about the planet’s magnetic field, solar wind, temperature and pressure.
(ESA via UniverseToday)
Venus Express Prepares to Descend into Hell
Venus is definitely not a friendly planet for humanity. Soviet landers that arrived on the surface a few decades back were crushed pretty quickly. Its surface temperature is more than 842 degrees Fahrenheit (450 degrees Celsius) and the atmosphere is full of noxious gases.
But descending into this pressure-filled cooker is exactly what Venus Express is going to do shortly. The European Space Agency spacecraft will conclude eight years of orbital operations with an attempt to fall into the planet. The maneuvers are complicated, and there’s no guarantee they will go as planned, but ESA plans to make the plunge by the end of this year.
For the better part of a decade, Venus Express has been orbiting the planet every 24 hours, swinging in an elliptical orbit that ranges from 155 miles (250 kilometers) to 41,010 miles (66,000 kilometers). But now the spacecraft is almost out of fuel, and will now be redirected for “experimental aerobreaking” to slow down through skimming the atmosphere.
The maneuvers will take place between June 18 and July 17, where controllers hope to gain some information about the planet’s magnetic field, solar wind, temperature and pressure.
(ESA via UniverseToday)
via ehMac.ca http://ift.tt/1gwhPST
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