Exploration Of Venus

[thefinalfrontier]

Bad weather postponed a scheduled multi-mission launch of an H-IIA rocket from Japan early Tuesday, which includes the first Japanese probe to Venus and an experimental solar sail. The next launch attempt for the "Akatsuki" Venus Climate Orbiter and an the solar sail called IKAROS will be Thursday, May 20, at 21:58 UTC (May 20 at 5:58 EDT) – which is May 21 at 6:58 in Japan.Akatsuki is Japan's first mission to Venus, and it will work closely with the ESA's Venus Express, already at Venus.

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Akatsuki and IKAROS on the launch pad Taken on May 17, 2010, about 24 hours before the planned launch of Akatsuki and IKAROS toward Venus. They are stacked aboard an H-IIA rocket. Credit: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd

IKAROS - solar sail from Japan. Image: JAXA

[Waspie_Dwarf]

May 20, 2010 Updated

H-IIA F17 with AKATSUKI/IKAROS onboard moved to Launch Pad 1 again

The H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 17 with the Venus Climate Orbiter “AKATSUKI” and the Small Solar Power Sail Demonstrator “IKAROS” onboard was transported back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) after its launch delay had been decided. At around 1:00 p.m. on the 20th, the launch vehicle was moved again to Launch Pad 1. Final preparations, including propellant loading, will be carried out to be ready for the launch at 6:58:22 a.m. on the 21st (Fri.)

The live launch report broadcast will begin at 6:30 a.m. on the 21st. The report will also be broadcast at JAXA i, Sagamihara Campus and other public viewing locations including some universities. We are welcoming support messages, and we also welcome any launch photos taken by the public. If you are able to take some nice photos of the launch, please send them to JAXA.

* The live report schedule is subject to change due to the launch preparation status and weather conditions.

Source: JAXA - Missions - Akutsuki

[Waspie_Dwarf]

The Japanese Space Exploration Agency (JAXA) press release is reproduced below:

Launch Result of

the Venus Climate Orbiter "AKATSUKI" (PLANET-C)

aboard H-IIA Launch Vehicle No.17

May 21, 2010 (JST)

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA))

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the Venus Climate Orbiter "AKATSUKI" (PLANET-C) aboard H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 17 (H-IIA F17) at 6:58:22 a.m. on May 21, 2010 (Japan Standard Time, JST) from the Tanegashima Space Center.

The launch vehicle flew smoothly, and, at about 27 minutes and 29 seconds after liftoff, the separation of the AKATSUKI was confirmed.

We would like to express our profound appreciation for the cooperation and support of all related personnel and organizations that helped contribute to the successful launch of the H-IIA F17.

At the time of the launch, the weather was light cloudiness, a wind speed was 2.4 meters/second from the north-north-east, and the temperature was 21.2 degrees Celsius.

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Mission website:

AKATSUKI Special Site

Venus Climate Orbiter AKATSUKI (PLANET-C)

Small Solar Power Sail Demonstrator IKAROS

Index for 2010/5

Source: JAXA - Press Release

Edited May 22, 2010 by Waspie_Dwarf
fixed link.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

The Japanese Space Exploration Agency (JAXA) press release is reproduced below:

Initial Operation Result of

the Venus Climate Orbiter 'AKATSUKI'

May 21, 2010 (JST)

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA))

The Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) received the signal transmitted from the Venus Climate Orbiter "AKATSUKI" at the Uchinoura Space Center at 4:40 p.m. on May 21, 2010 (Japan Standard Time, JST), and confirmed that the scheduled sequence of events including the solar array paddle deployment and sun acquisition were successfully performed.

The AKATSUKI was launched from the Tanegashima Space Center at 6:58:22 a.m. on May 21, 2010 (JST)

The orbiter is currently in a healthy state.

We are preparing for the AKATSUKI injection into the Venus orbit in early December while checking functions of the onboard equipment and controlling the attitude and orbit.

We would like to express our profound appreciation for the cooperation and support of all related personnel and organizations that helped contribute to the successful launch and tracking and control operations of the AKATSUKI.

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Mission website:

AKATSUKI Special Site

Venus Climate Orbiter AKATSUKI (PLANET-C)

Index for 2010/5

Source: JAXA - Press Release

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Was Venus once a habitable planet?

24 June 2010

Venus Monitoring Camera image taken in the ultraviolet (0.365 micro-

metres), from a distance of about 30 000 km.

It shows numerous high-contrast features, caused by an unknown

chemical in the clouds that absorbs ultraviolet light, creating the

bright and dark zones.

With data from Venus Express, scientists have learnt that the equatorial

areas on Venus that appear dark in ultraviolet light are regions of relatively

high temperature, where intense convection brings up dark material from

below. In contrast, the bright regions at mid-latitudes are areas where

the temperature in the atmosphere decreases with depth. The temperature

reaches a minimum at the cloud tops suppressing vertical mixing. This

annulus of cold air, nicknamed the ‘cold collar’, appears as a bright

band in the ultraviolet images.

Credits: ESA/MPS/DLR/IDA

ESA’s Venus Express is helping planetary scientists investigate whether Venus once had oceans. If it did, it may even have begun its existence as a habitable planet similar to Earth.

These days, Earth and Venus seem completely different. Earth is a lush, clement world teeming with life, whilst Venus is hellish, its surface roasting at temperatures higher than those of a kitchen oven.

But underneath it all the two planets share a number of striking similarities. They are nearly identical in size and now, thanks to ESA’s Venus Express orbiter, planetary scientists are seeing other similarities too.

“The basic composition of Venus and Earth is very similar,” says Håkan Svedhem, ESA Venus Express Project Scientist. Just how similar planetary scientists from around the world will be discussing in Aussois, France, where they are gathering this week for a conference.

This artist’s concept of Venus, dated 2006, suggests the presence of

lightning in the atmosphere.

Credits: J. Whatmore

One difference stands out: Venus has very little water. Were the contents of Earth’s oceans to be spread evenly across the world, they would create a layer 3 km deep. If you were to condense the amount of water vapour in Venus’ atmosphere onto its surface, it would create a global puddle just 3 cm deep.

Yet there is another similarity here. Billions of years ago, Venus probably had much more water. Venus Express has certainly confirmed that the planet has lost a large quantity of water into space.

It happens because ultraviolet radiation from the Sun streams into Venus’ atmosphere and breaks up the water molecules into atoms: two hydrogens and one oxygen. These then escape to space.

Venus Express has measured the rate of this escape and confirmed that roughly twice as much hydrogen is escaping as oxygen. It is therefore believed that water is the source of these escaping ions. It has also shown that a heavy form of hydrogen, called deuterium, is progressively enriched in the upper echelons of Venus’s atmosphere, because the heavier hydrogen will find it less easy to escape the planet’s grip.

Venus Express has two solar cell panels per wing comprising alternating

rows of standard triple junction solar cells as well as highly reflective

mirrors to reduce the operating temperatures. There is twice as much

sunlight in Venusian orbit as there is in Earthis orbit, plus additional

thermal input from the Venusian surface and atmosphere – 75% of sunlight

being reflected up from it. In certain cases, this results in Venus Express

receiving an equivalent of the thermal input from 3.5 Suns.

“Everything points to there being large amounts of water on Venus in the past,” says Colin Wilson, Oxford University, UK. But that does not necessarily mean there were oceans on the planet’s surface.

Eric Chassefière, Université Paris-Sud, France, has developed a computer model that suggests the water was largely atmospheric and existed only during the very earliest times, when the surface of the planet was completely molten. As the water molecules were broken into atoms by sunlight and escaped into space, the subsequent drop in temperature probably triggered the solidification of the surface. In other words: no oceans.

Although it is difficult to test this hypothesis it is a key question. If Venus ever did possess surface water, the planet may possibly have had an early habitable phase.

Even if true, Chassefière’s model does not preclude the chance that colliding comets brought additional water to Venus after the surface crystallised, and these created bodies of standing water in which life may have been able to form.

There are many open questions. “Much more extensive modelling of the magma ocean–atmosphere system and of its evolution is required to better understand the evolution of the young Venus,” says Chassefière.

When creating those computer models, the data provided by Venus Express will prove crucial.

Source: ESA - News

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Exploring the Venusian Atmosphere - AKATSUKI/PLANET-C

23 June 2010

The atmosphere of Venus is circulating around the planet much faster than Venus's rotation. Such a meteorological phenomenon is called a "Super-rotation," which never occurs on Earth. Our Venus Climate Orbiter "AKATSUKI" (PLANET-C) will try to solve the mystery of the atmospheric phenomenon of Venus

Source: JAXA Channel - YouTube

[Waspie_Dwarf]

The Japanese Space Exploration Agency (JAXA) press release is reproduced below:

Orbit Control Maneuver Result of

the Venus Climate Orbiter 'AKATSUKI'

July 6, 2010 (JST)

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

The Venus Climate Orbiter "AKATSUKI," which was launched on May 21, 2010 (Japan Standard Time,) turned on the orbital maneuvering engine (OME) to jet 500 Newton (N)*1 of thruster on June 28 (JST) at a distance of 14.6 million km from the earth or 1.06 astronomical units (AU)*2 from the sun. As a result, we have successfully performed on-orbit verification of the ceramic thruster, made of silicon nitride (Si3N4) for the first time in the world. The thruster was newly developed in Japan.

Image: Onboard position of the 500 N class ceramic

thruster, whose on-orbit verification was successfully

performed.

This thruster is a liquid rocket engine using hydrazine and nitrogen peroxide, and it is mainly used for retrofiring when the orbiter is injected into the Venus orbit. The thrust emitted this time is not only for adjusting the access to Venus, but is also an imperative operation to evaluate the thrust characteristics of the engine for Venus orbit insertion. As a result of our detailed orbit tracking by the JAXA Uchinoura Space Center, JAXA Usuda Deep Space Center, and NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) stations, we have confirmed that about 12 meters per second of velocity correction was performed by 13-second firing of the OME, and that met the range of the scheduled orbit control. The next orbit control (fine adjustment) is scheduled in early November, and AKATSUKI will go to the nearest point of Venus and be injected into the Venus orbit on December 7 (JST.)

Currently, the explorer and its onboard devices are working properly, and the Ultra-Stable Oscillator (USO) was also found to be functioning well to achieve the frequency stability as expected in addition to the Ultraviolet Imager (UVI,) 1µm Camera (IR1) and Longwave IR Camera (LIR,) whose initial functional verifications were already completed on the launch day evening.

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(Note)

¹ Newton (N) is a unit that shows the amount of net force required to accelerate a mass of one kilogram at a rate of one meter per second per second. In other words, it indicates the thrust power of the explorer. 500 N is equivalent to about 50 kg of gravity loaded onto an object on the Earth.

² One astronomical unit (AU) is an average distance between the sun and the Earth. AKATSUKI is currently flying outside of the earth orbit as scheduled, thus it is in a different environment from the environment that is assumed for operations on the Venus orbit, which is at a distance of 0.7 AU from the sun on .

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Mission website:

AKATSUKI Special Site

Venus Climate Orbiter AKATSUKI (PLANET-C)

Index for 2010/7

Source: JAXA - Press Release

Edited July 7, 2010 by Waspie_Dwarf

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Russian Scientists Plan to Launch an Interplanetary Station to Venus

:: 07.07.2010

According to RAS Space Research Institute Director Lev Zeleny, Russia plans to launch Venus-D spacecraft to the Morning Star in next 10 years. Zeleny said that the project has reached its design and development stage.

However the mission scenario has not been defined yet. Zeleny also mentions that France is going to make significant contribution into the project.

Venus-D is to study atmosphere of the planet, and to find out why water disappeared from Venus.

In November 2009, is was decided to use the heritage of Lavochkin R&D in development of similar vehicles. It was proposed to launch the spacecraft by Proton of Angara.

Venus-D is slated for launch in Dec. 2016, reach Venus in 2017. The mission is to complete in 2019, Interfax informs.

Source: ROSCOSMOS - News

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Russia Eyes Scientific Mission to Venus

:: 26.07.2010

A leading Russian firm specializing in automated probes is preparing a mission to Venus. Planned for 2016, its mission is to study the planet’s turbulent atmosphere and surface, and find out why it has no water.

The preparation work on the spacecraft has started even though the contract for it has not yet been signed, told head and chief designer of the Lavochkin construction bureau Viktor Khartov.

The Venera-D (Venus-D) station is to be launched in December 2016 and delivered to Venusian orbit in May 2017. It will be carried by a heavy Proton-M or Angara-A5 rocket.

The orbiting craft will launch a lander module and two atmospheric probes, which will gather samples of the atmosphere at altitudes of 55-60 km and 45-50 km. The orbiter will have scientific instruments of its own and will also relay data from the probes and the lander to Earth.

The mission is to study in detail the chemical composition of Venus’ atmosphere and soil, as well as the dynamics of its strong winds. The lander and probes will work for up to several days before corrosion damages them. The orbiter’s life is expected to be much longer.

Russia Today

Source: ROSCOSMOS - News

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Venus Express finds planetary atmospheres such a drag

7 October 2010

The polar atmosphere of Venus is thinner than expected. How do we know? Because ESA’s Venus Express has actually been there. Instead of looking from orbit, Venus Express has flown through the upper reaches of the planet’s poisonous atmosphere.

Venus Express went diving into the alien atmosphere during a series of low passes in July–August 2008, October 2009, and February and April 2010. The aim was to measure the density of the upper polar atmosphere, an experiment that had never been attempted before at Venus.

The campaign has returned 10 measurements so far and shown that the atmosphere high above the poles is a surprising 60% thinner than predicted. This could indicate that unanticipated natural processes are at work in the atmosphere. A team led by Ingo Mueller-Wodarg of Imperial College, London, are currently investigating.

The density is critical information for mission controllers, who are investigating the possibility of driving the spacecraft even lower into the atmosphere in order to change its orbit and extend the lifetime of the mission.

“It would be dangerous to send the spacecraft deep into the atmosphere before we understand the density,” says team member Pascal Rosenblatt, Royal Observatory of Belgium.

The fact that Venus Express can make these measurements at all is remarkable. The spacecraft was not designed for it and so does not have instruments capable of directly sampling the atmosphere. Instead, radio tracking stations on Earth watch for the drag on the spacecraft as it dips into the atmosphere and is decelerated by the Venusian equivalent of air resistance.

In addition, operators at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, turned one solar wing edge-on and the other face-on so that air resistance would twist the spacecraft.

Venus’ atmosphere extends from the surface up to an altitude of around 250 km. During April, Venus Express briefly skimmed down to 175 km above the planetary surface.

As well as the surprisingly low density overall, the twisting of the spacecraft has also registered a sharp density change from the day to the night side of the planet. Next week, Venus Express will go diving again, this time lowering itself to 165 km.

This image, of the ‘eye of the hurricane’ on Venus was taken by the Visible and

Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) on board Venus Express.

This picture shows a region in the venusian atmosphere about 60 km from the

surface, at a wavelength of about 5 micrometres. In this figure, the dipole

assumes an eye-like shape and from here until the last image, it is possible

to see how its shape evolves rapidly in a span of only 24 hours.

The yellow dot in the image indicates the location of the south pole.

Credits: ESA/VIRTIS/INAF-IASF/Obs. de Paris-LESIA/Univ. of Oxford

These measurements may be used eventually to help make changes to the orbit of Venus Express, halving the time it takes to circle the planet and providing new opportunities for additional scientific measurements.

The current elliptical orbit takes 24 hours to complete and loops from 250 km to 66 000 km. When Venus Express is far away from the planet, it is pulled off course slightly by the Sun’s gravity. So, every 40-50 days, its engines must be fired to compensate. The fuel to do this will run out in 2015 unless the orbit can be lowered using the drag of Venus’ atmosphere to slow the spacecraft. It is a delicate, potentially dangerous operation and cannot be rushed.

“The timetable is still open because a number of studies have yet to be completed,” says Håkan Svedhem, ESA Project Scientist Venus Express. “If our experiments show we can carry out these manoeuvres safely, then we may be able to lower the orbit in early 2012.”

In the meantime, Venus Express may be feeling it’s all a bit of a drag, but the science teams involved are happier than ever with their new data. “We couldn’t see this region with our instruments because the atmosphere was too thin to register, but now we are sampling it directly,” says Dr Mueller-Wodarg.

Source: ESA - News

[Waspie_Dwarf]

October 25, 2010 Updated

AKATSUKI takes images of Sagittarius using its onboard cameras

On October 8, the onboard cameras of the AKATSUKI took images of a part of Sagittarius. For this image shooting, we made the AKATSUKI face its cameras' installed side to Sagittarius while the explorer was communicating with the Usuda Deep Space Center, and took images by activating the Longwave IR camera (IRC,) Ultraviolet Image (UVI,) 1µ m camera (IR1,) and 2µ m camera (IR2.)

The AKATSUKI onboard cameras can capture invisible light such as ultraviolet or infrared rays. Thus Sagittarius shot by the UVI, which observes ultraviolet rays, and the IR1, which catches infrared rays, looks different from what the human eye can see.

Concerning the LIR and IR2, it was predicted in advance that they could not detect a star under the observed wave-length region and temperature conditions of the observation this time. We, therefore, confirmed that each camera works properly according to their respective functional conditions.

Source: JAXA - Missions - Akutsuki

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November 18, 2010 Updated

Date of AKATSUKI injection to Venus orbit

JAXA decided to emit jets from the orbital maneuvering engine (OME) of the AKATSUKI at 8:49:00 a.m. on Dec. 7 (Japan Standard Time, all the following dates and time are in JST) to inject the orbiter into the Venus orbit. Under the current schedule, the OME jet emission will be completed at 9:01:00 a.m. on the same day, and the Venus orbit will be determined around 9:00 p.m. also on the same day after some attitude control maneuvers including the Earth pointing maneuver of the Z axis.

The AKATSUKI will study the Venus atmosphere for about two years after being injected into the Venus orbit

Source: JAXA - Missions - Akutsuki

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Venus holds warning for Earth

30 November 2010

A mysterious high-altitude layer of sulphur dioxide discovered by ESA’s Venus Express has been explained. As well as telling us more about Venus, it could be sending a warning to those on Earth seeking to inject our atmosphere with sulphur droplets in an attempt to mitigate climate change.

Venus is blanketed in sulphuric acid clouds that block our view of the surface. The clouds form at altitudes of 50–70 km when sulphur dioxide from volcanoes combines with water vapour to make sulphuric acid droplets. Any remaining sulphur dioxide should be destroyed rapidly by the intense solar radiation above 70 km.

So the detection of a sulphur dioxide layer at 90–110 km by ESA’s Venus Express orbiter in 2008 posed a complete mystery. Where did that sulphur dioxide come from?

Now, computer simulations by Xi Zhang, California Institute of Technology, USA, and colleagues from America, France and Taiwan show that some sulphuric acid droplets may evaporate at high altitude, freeing gaseous sulphuric acid that is then broken apart by sunlight, releasing sulphur dioxide gas.

This false-colour ultraviolet image of the south pole of Venus was obtained

by the Venus Monitoring Camera (VMC) on board ESA’s Venus Express

on 25 February 2008 from a distance of about 20 000 km, at a wavelength

of 365 nanometres. The octagonal shape of the image is due to the VMC

field of view.

It is a zoom-in on the south polar ‘cap’, located inside a 60-degree-

latitude circle. It shows a very bright and uniform appearance and lacks

small-scale markings. However several dark streaks usually encircle the

polar regions and seem to indicate strong jet-stream-like winds in the

atmosphere around the pole.

Credits: ESA/MPS/DLR/IDA

“We had not expected the high-altitude sulphur layer, but now we can explain our measurements,” says Håkan Svedhem, ESA’s Venus Express Project Scientist.

“However, the new findings also mean that the atmospheric sulphur cycle is more complicated than we thought.”

As well as adding to our knowledge of Venus, this new understanding may be warning us that proposed ways of mitigating climate change on Earth may not be as effective as originally thought.

Nobel prize winner Paul Crutzen has recently advocated injecting artificially large quantities of sulphur dioxide into Earth’s atmosphere at around 20 km to counteract the global warming resulting from increased greenhouse gases.

Venus Express has two solar cell panels per wing comprising alternating rows of standard triple junction solar

cells as well as highly reflective mirrors to reduce the operating temperatures. There is twice as much sunlight

in Venus's orbit as there is in Earth's orbit, plus additional thermal input from the Venusian surface and atmosphere

– 75% of sunlight being reflected up from it. In certain cases, this results in Venus Express receiving an equivalent

of the thermal input from 3.5 Suns

The proposal stems from observations of powerful volcanic eruptions, in particular the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines that shot sulphur dioxide up into Earth’s atmosphere. Reaching 20 km in altitude, the gas formed small droplets of concentrated sulphuric acid, like those found in Venus’ clouds, which then spread around Earth. The droplets created a haze layer that reflected some of the Sun’s rays back into space, cooling the whole planet by about 0.5°C.

However, the new work on the evaporation of sulphuric acid on Venus suggests that such attempts at cooling our planet may not be as successful as first thought, because we do not know how quickly the initially protective haze will be converted back into gaseous sulphuric acid: this is transparent and so allows all the Sun’s rays through.

“We must study in great detail the potential consequences of such an artificial sulphur layer in the atmosphere of Earth,” says Jean-Loup Bertaux, Université de Versailles-Saint-Quentin, France, Principal Investigator of the SPICAV sensor on Venus Express. “Venus has an enormous layer of such droplets, so anything that we learn about those clouds is likely to be relevant to any geo-engineering of our own planet.”

In effect, nature is doing the experiment for us and Venus Express allows us to learn the lessons before experimenting with our own world.

Source: ESA - News

[Waspie_Dwarf]

December 3, 2010 Updated

Please support AKATSUKI as it enters the Venus Orbit on Dec. 7

The Venus Climate Orbiter "AKATSUKI" will finally be injected into its Venus orbit on December 7. We are planning some events to support the AKATSUKI project on that day including the "Venus arrival live broadcast" featuring the AKATSUKI project, a public viewing to show the AKATSUKI control room at the time of orbit insertion, and an observation event of Venus with pundits. Your support will be very much appreciated!

• AKATSUKI Venus orbit injection support events (Sagamihara Campus)
  
• Let's support the AKATSUKI through Twitter! (Japanese language only)

Source: JAXA - Missions - Akutsuki

Edited December 6, 2010 by Waspie_Dwarf

[Waspie_Dwarf]

December 6, 2010 Updated

AKATSUKI ready for orbit injection

The Venus Climate Orbiter "AKATSUKI" shifted its attitude at 7:50 a.m. on December 6 to be ready for Venus orbit insertion at 8:49 a.m. on December 7.

On the 7th, we will hold some events to support the AKATSUKI orbit injection. We plan to run the "Venus arrival live broadcast" featuring the AKTSUKI and show the scene of the AKATSUKI Control Room" at a public viewing site. Please come and join the injection moment. (* All time and dates are Japan Standard Time.)

• AKATSUKI Venus orbit injection support events (Sagamihara Campus)
  
• Let's support the AKATSUKI through Twitter! (Japanese language only)

Source: JAXA - Missions - Akutsuki

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Japan waits on Venus spacecraft

Japan's space agency (Jaxa) is working to establish the status of its Akatsuki mission to Venus.

The spacecraft fired its main engine just before midnight GMT on Monday in a manoeuvre designed to allow the planet's gravity to capture the probe.

Akatsuki then briefly lost contact with Earth as it moved behind the Venus.

Scientists said they would know later on Tuesday whether the operation to insert the satellite into the correct orbit had been successful or not.

Read more...

Edited December 8, 2010 by Waspie_Dwarf

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Japan's Akatsuki probe fails to enter Venus orbit

Japan's first space probe bound for Venus has failed to enter the planet's orbit, the country's space agency says.

The space craft, Akatsuki, is believed to have passed Venus after it failed to slow down sufficiently.

Akatsuki, launched about 200 days ago, fired its main engine just before 0000 GMT on Monday to allow the planet's gravity to capture the probe.

A previous interplanetary space probe launched by Japan in 1998 to orbit Mars was also a failure.

Akatsuki briefly lost contact but was now back in communication and functioning normally as it headed off around the sun, officials said.

Read more...

[Waspie_Dwarf]

The Japanese Space Exploration Agency (JAXA) press release is reproduced below:

Venus Climate Orbiter ‘AKATSUKI’

Venus Observation Orbit Injection (VOI-1) Result

December 8, 2010 (JST)

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

The Institute of Space and Astronautical Science of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (ISAS/JAXA) performed Venus orbit insertion maneuver (VOI-1) for the Venus Climate Orbiter “AKATSUKI” at 8:49 a.m. on December 7 (Japan Standard Time,) but, unfortunately, we have found that the orbiter was not injected into the planned orbit as a result of orbit estimation.

The “AKATSUKI” was launched from the Tanegashima Space Center on May 21, 2010 (JST.)

JAXA has set up an investigation team led by ISAS Director within JAXA to study the cause of the failure. We will update you with the countermeasures and investigation results.

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Mission website:

AKATSUKI Special Site

Venus Climate Orbiter AKATSUKI (PLANET-C)

Index for 2010/12

Source: JAXA - Press Release

[Waspie_Dwarf]

AKATSUKI's first shots of Venus taken during health check

Given the failure of injecting AKATSUKI into the planned Venus orbit, the project team and the special committee of JAXA are now conducting extensive analyses of its cause. Various functionality and health checks of the probe are now underway. As a result of this activity, we obtained images of Venus at 9 am (JST), Dec 9th.

The project team switched on the long wave infrared camera (LIR), ultraviolet imager (UVI), and 1 micron camera (IR1) to take images of Venus at the distance of 0.6 milion km*. Venus was pictured with the angular size of about 1.2 deg**.

* Distance between Earth and the moon is 0.36 milion km

** Angular size of the moon from the ground is about 0.5 deg.

Long wave infrared camera (LIR) : 10 micron (wavelength)

Field of View: 12.4 deg x 16.4 deg

Number of pixels: 248 x 328

Ultraviolet imager (UVI): 365 nm (wavelength)

Field of View: 12 deg x 12 deg

Number of pixels: 1024 x 1024

1 micron camera (IR1) : 0.9 micron (wavelength)

Field of View: 12 deg x 12 deg

Number of pixels: 1024 x 1024

Comparison of images in the same scale

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Related Articles

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Venus Climate Orbiter AKATSUKI (PLANET-C)

December 10, 2010

Soruce: JAXA - ISAS - Topics