PLANETARY MUSINGS

a return to Venus

After more than a decade, earthlings have sent another spacecraft to the planet Venus.  The European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft Venus Express (a near copy of Mars Express) went into orbit Tuesday.  The Venus Express mission is aimed primarily at understanding the thick veil that is the planet's atmosphere, though there is some hope that a couple of instruments may return some scientifically useful data from observations through the atmosphere of the surface.  In the early 1990's, NASA's Magellan spacecraft used a high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to image the surface; radar is one of the few instruments that can penetrate the clouds around Venus.  However, there is potentially a 'window' in the infrared region that might penetrate the clouds.  In any event, any new science from Venus is a good thing!


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