ESA - Venus Express

[mrmorris]

This is the way things are with every ESA mission I've ever paid attention to. There's reasonably frequent updates up until science operations begin... then an brief press release with photo every few months after that. It happened with SMART-1, Mars Express, and now Venus Express. The only time there's a <b>lot</b> of news coverage is when things go wrong, ala Beagle and the radar antenna on Mars Express.

 

[galactichalo]

some photos here<br />http://www.esa.int/esa-mmg/mmg.pl?b=b&type=I&mission=Venus%20Express&start=1<br /><br />The ESA is poor with press releases and ESA make no effort to give their data to the public unlike NASA's good PR effort

 

[alpha_centauri]

"The ESA is poor with press releases and ESA make no effort to give their data to the public unlike NASA's good PR effort" <br /><br />With the amount of money NASA's PR department gets compared to ESA's I should bloody well hope that NASA's would be better! ESA can only work with what it's got.

 

[alokmohan]

ESA does not exaggerate.Based on facts ,so dry.

 

[bdewoody]

They need to show the public what they are getting for their money. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em><font size="2">Bob DeWoody</font></em> </div>

 

[alpha_centauri]

More about Venus Express<br /><br />http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6041570.stm<br /><br />"But for now, scientists are happy to report that all the instruments are in good working order and beaming back massive amounts of data."<br /><br />So, does anyone know what is happening with FPS and whether it's been fixed or not? I'd like to take this article at face value but it could be just inaccurate reporting.<br />

 

[brellis]

<font color="yellow">With the amount of money NASA's PR department gets compared to ESA's I should bloody well hope that NASA's would be better! ESA can only work with what it's got.</font><br /><br />It doesn't take a lot of money to upload images to a web page. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2" color="#ff0000"><em><strong>I'm a recovering optimist - things could be better.</strong></em></font> </p> </div>

 

[alpha_centauri]

It's not free either.<br /><br />besides I believe the reason for that not happening is because of a strange self imposed rule at ESA that only the project scientists get a look at the raw data.<br /><br />you'd have to take it up with them to see what that's about.

 

[mithridates]

We finally have an update:<br /><br />http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=21054 <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>----- </p><p>http://mithridates.blogspot.com</p> </div>

 

[brellis]

don't play Texas Hold'em with ESA, lol. They hold their cards for months, for crying out loud! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2" color="#ff0000"><em><strong>I'm a recovering optimist - things could be better.</strong></em></font> </p> </div>

 

[mithridates]

Yeah, and it's a pretty weak update too. "Hello, time for the next update. We learned some more about clouds. Talk to you in three months. Ta."<br /><br />-_- <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>----- </p><p>http://mithridates.blogspot.com</p> </div>

 

[alokmohan]

Very useful web.ESA is shaping well.

 

[flynn]

I like Europes space program, it may lack Nasas "Sparkle" but it sure does deliver a lot of science for the Dollar (Euro) <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#800080">"All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring" - <strong>Chuck Palahniuk</strong>.</font> </div>

 

[bdewoody]

Can't tell by what they put on their web site <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em><font size="2">Bob DeWoody</font></em> </div>

 

[kane007]

A plug just to remind everyone this probe is not AWOL.<br /><br />No. 54 - Routine Science Operations<br /><br /><b>Report for Period 12 November to 18 November 2006</b><br /><br />During the reporting period the mission operations have been conducted according to the plan. Science operations have been resumed nominally after the end of the solar conjunction and the work-around for the TM burst generation in VIRTIS seems to be effective.<br /><br />On DoY 318 a problem in the ground station has caused the loss of the complete ground station pass. This has had no effect on the operations.<br /><br /><b>Short Term Planning</b><br />Operations of STP028 were executed successfully and the planning of STP029 was completed in time.<br /><br />The science data dump has been delayed by a missed ground station contact on DoY 318 but no data has been lost.<br /><br /><b>Medium Term Planning</b><br />MTP010 planning has been successfully completed.<br /><br /><b>Long Term Planning</b><br />A decision whether to request DSN support for the <b>movie </b>observation, to be performed in April 2007, has not been taken yet. <br /><br />Its this movie that will be worth waiting for!

 

[MeteorWayne]

God, could they give any less information than they did?<br /><br />"Well everything's working and the spacecraft hasn't blown up" would provide as much useful data.<br /><br />We are really spoiled by NASA, who shoves raw data out ASAP, and let's the anaysis come later.<br /><br />I hope they release some results by 2010 <img src="/images/icons/frown.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[kane007]

Well NASA - more precisely Goddard - have the Vesper proposal in the works.

 

[brellis]

<font color="yellow">could they give any less information</font><br /><br />I thought the forces of freedom were victorious in the Cold War. boo ESA! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2" color="#ff0000"><em><strong>I'm a recovering optimist - things could be better.</strong></em></font> </p> </div>

 

[halman]

MeteorWayne.<br /><br />Maybe they are covering up for something, like a complete lack of understanding how to interpret data which conflicts with what they expect, or, could it be that so far they have learned nothing new? Maybe they want to insure that no one can capitalize on the raw data before they can stamp their copyright on it, having seen Cassini images being made into desktops. And we are unlikely to see any vivid images, spectacular vistas, or colorful landscapes, so what is left? Magnetic field strength readings? Isn't this probe more likely to be only valuable to planetary formation scientists, who deal mainly with theory, and are searching for proof of those theories? Or atmospheric specialists, trying to figure out how an atmosphere like that of Venus can come to be?<br /><br />For some reason, I have come to consider Venus to be just about worthless for the foreseeable future, except as a source of esoteric scientific data, of interest only to a special few who are trying to understand the subtle nuances of the development of the Solar System. We aren't going to be able to extract resources from Venus, sell real estate there, or book pleasure cruises around the surface. Apart from a gravity well that can be used to help get to Mercury, Venus is pretty much useless, except as a pretty star in the sky. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> The secret to peace of mind is a short attention span. </div>

 

[3488]

I want to know, has Venus Express found any evidence as yet of active Cytherean volcanism??? Is the PFS fixed yet??? <br /><br />Does Venus have lightning??? If so where? Around the equator, midlatitudes, polar regions or evenly distributed??<br /><br />The pace of new information from this mission is like watching a car rust!! Sorry a rusting car happens much quicker!! It does not cost much to update a web page on a regular basis.<br /><br />Meteorwayne is correct. This is frustrating. Halman is also correct to a point, but Venus only being slightly smaller & slightly less massive than the Earth, but evolved so differently, cannot be ignored.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[mithridates]

Since they're the first ones to send a probe to Venus (my favourite planet) in a long time I'm more along the lines of "Yay ESA...er, mind telling us what you're up to? Pretty please?"<br /><br />Seriously though, I wonder if they actually just don't realize that more press releases = more publicity = more interest = more missions. I wish I were in Europe right now (I live in Korea) so I could actually go there in person and ask them just what the hell their PR strategy is. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>----- </p><p>http://mithridates.blogspot.com</p> </div>

 

[mithridates]

Venus is the best destination we have out there if people would turn their attention away from the surface conditions and concentrate on the planet 50 km above the surface. 1 bar of pressure, Earth-like temperatures, atmosphere that enables the air we breathe to float like helium does here, closest object to Earth besides the Moon, almost Earthlike gravity, etc. etc. If there was a gaseous planet with conditions like that at that distance we certainly would have considering going there, but alas Venus has the hellish surface that people seem to want to bring up as a reason not to go.<br /><br />The next thing we need to send to Venus are solar flyers at 40-60 km above the surface. With the slow rotation and high atmospheric pressure they can stay up and in sunlight for 24 hours a day. On no other planet can you do that. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>----- </p><p>http://mithridates.blogspot.com</p> </div>

 

[brellis]

Even if they just said "on Day X, 15 images were obtained in such-and-such manner, to be publicly released three years hence" would be nice. They must have internal memos to that effect. C'mon folks, the world is waiting with baited breath! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2" color="#ff0000"><em><strong>I'm a recovering optimist - things could be better.</strong></em></font> </p> </div>

 

[mithridates]

First interesting update in a while:<br /><br />http://www.venustoday.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=21455<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Thanks to ESA's Venus Express data, scientists obtained the first large-area temperature maps of the southern hemisphere of the inhospitable, lead-melting surface of Venus.<br /><br />The new data may help with searching and identifying 'hot spots' on the surface, considered to be possible signs of active volcanism on the planet. The results, presented today at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) assembly in San Francisco, USA, were obtained thanks to VIRTIS, the Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer on board Venus Express.<br /><br />To obtain this fundamental information about the surface temperature, VIRTIS made use of the so-called infrared spectral 'windows' present in the Venusian atmosphere. Through these 'windows' thermal radiation at specific wavelengths can leak from the deepest atmospheric layers, pass through the dense cloud curtain situated at about 60 kilometres altitude, and then escape to space, where it can be detected by instruments like VIRTIS. In this way VIRTIS succeeded in looking through the thick carbon dioxide curtain surrounding Venus and detected the heat directly emitted by the hot rocks on the ground. <br /><br />"We are very excited about these results, as they represent a very important item in the list of Venus Express' and VIRTIS' scientific objectives at Venus", says Giuseppe Piccioni, one of the Principal Investigators of the VIRTIS experiment, from the Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica in Rome, Italy.<br /><br />The measurements, made in August 2006 over the Themis and Phoebe Regions in the southern hemisphere of Venus, reveal temperature variations of 30 degrees between lowlands and mountain tops, correlating well with existing topographical radar data from previous</p></blockquote> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>----- </p><p>http://mithridates.blogspot.com</p> </div>

 

[bdewoody]

I think I know now why this mission isn't getting much attention outside of the astronomy community. There's just not anything that is visually interesting. I'm sure they are collecting lots of valuable scientific data but nothing I've seen really catches the eye. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em><font size="2">Bob DeWoody</font></em> </div>