Venus Express: Payload, Mission Goals and Venusian Discoveries
L. B. Breitenfeld
Introduction:
In November of 2002, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced that their first mission to the planet Venus, titled Venus Express, would launch in 2005 (Abbott and Schiermeier, 2002; Hoofs et al., 2009). The Russian Soyuz-Fregat launcher in Baikonur Kazakhstan on November 9th 2005, launched Venus Express into space (Fabrega et al. 2007). After traveling a distance of 440 million km, Venus Express reached the orbit of the planet on April 11th 2006 (Fabrega et al. 2007). The polar elliptical orbit around Venus, possessed an apocentre distance of roughly 66,000 km, a pericentre height of about 250 km and an orbital period of 24 hours (Titov et al., 2009). …show more content…
It is composed of two neutral particle detectors, a neutral particle imager, an ion mass analyzer and electron spectrometer (Svedhem et al., 2007). The interaction between the ionosphere and the solar wind is was still not fully understood and therefore this instrument was considered a priority for the mission. The PFS instrument, is an IR Fourier spectrometer with high-resolution capabilities modeled after the Mars Express Instrument (Svedhem et al., 2007). PFS was built in order to observe the upper cloud layer and mesosphere especially in the thermal IR range which allows for measurements to be conducted in light or dark (Svedhem et al., 2007). A UV and IR spectrometer known as SPICAV/SOIR was also present on Venus Express, the intention was to use the instrument to study the molecular components and vertical structure of the upper atmosphere (Svedhem et al., 2007). The search for molecules such as nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons and chlorine-bearing compounds will be a primary goal of the SOIR instrument (Svedhem et al., …show more content…
This instrument is able to acquire measurements at different sampling rates. While at distances greater than 10,000km the MAG will operate at 1 Hz sampling rate, while closer it will operate at 32 Hz and finally, for 2 min along the pericentre it will acquire data at 128 Hz (Svedhem et al., 2007). The data from MAG will complement the data the plasma data acquired on the ASPERA.
Mission Goals: The overall mission goals of Venus Express, included an investigation of the atmosphere, surface geology, plasma environment of the planet (Hoofs et al., 2009). More specifically, information on the cloud layer, haze, greenhouse effect, the atmospheric structure, dynamics, chemistry and composition are goals of the mission (Svedhem et al., 2007).
L. B. Breitenfeld
Introduction:
In November of 2002, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced that their first mission to the planet Venus, titled Venus Express, would launch in 2005 (Abbott and Schiermeier, 2002; Hoofs et al., 2009). The Russian Soyuz-Fregat launcher in Baikonur Kazakhstan on November 9th 2005, launched Venus Express into space (Fabrega et al. 2007). After traveling a distance of 440 million km, Venus Express reached the orbit of the planet on April 11th 2006 (Fabrega et al. 2007). The polar elliptical orbit around Venus, possessed an apocentre distance of roughly 66,000 km, a pericentre height of about 250 km and an orbital period of 24 hours (Titov et al., 2009). …show more content…
It is composed of two neutral particle detectors, a neutral particle imager, an ion mass analyzer and electron spectrometer (Svedhem et al., 2007). The interaction between the ionosphere and the solar wind is was still not fully understood and therefore this instrument was considered a priority for the mission. The PFS instrument, is an IR Fourier spectrometer with high-resolution capabilities modeled after the Mars Express Instrument (Svedhem et al., 2007). PFS was built in order to observe the upper cloud layer and mesosphere especially in the thermal IR range which allows for measurements to be conducted in light or dark (Svedhem et al., 2007). A UV and IR spectrometer known as SPICAV/SOIR was also present on Venus Express, the intention was to use the instrument to study the molecular components and vertical structure of the upper atmosphere (Svedhem et al., 2007). The search for molecules such as nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons and chlorine-bearing compounds will be a primary goal of the SOIR instrument (Svedhem et al., …show more content…
This instrument is able to acquire measurements at different sampling rates. While at distances greater than 10,000km the MAG will operate at 1 Hz sampling rate, while closer it will operate at 32 Hz and finally, for 2 min along the pericentre it will acquire data at 128 Hz (Svedhem et al., 2007). The data from MAG will complement the data the plasma data acquired on the ASPERA.
Mission Goals: The overall mission goals of Venus Express, included an investigation of the atmosphere, surface geology, plasma environment of the planet (Hoofs et al., 2009). More specifically, information on the cloud layer, haze, greenhouse effect, the atmospheric structure, dynamics, chemistry and composition are goals of the mission (Svedhem et al., 2007).