Venus 73 - A lost opportunity? |
Venus 73 - A lost opportunity? |
Aug 14 2007, 02:57 PM
Post
#1
|
|
Member Group: Members Posts: 212 Joined: 19-July 05 Member No.: 442 |
I've been browsing through the NTRS and I've stumbled upon a series of reports dealing with an alternative mission plan for the 72/73 Venus launch window (The one used for Mariner 10).
The plan was this: A modified version of the Mariner 9 probe carrying a 400lb balloon supported atmospheric probe would be launched atop an Atlas-Centaur or Titan IIIc. Upon arrival at Venus the atmosphere probe would be released and the remainder of the craft would either go into orbit or flyby Venus. The RTG powered balloon probe would operate for several months in the upper levels of the Venusian atmosphere. While I know that Mariner 10 was a great success (albeit with a lot of luck) and the first pictures of Mercury were well worth the effort, I cannot shake the feeling that this plan was a lost opportunity. While the Venusian atmosphere has been studied from orbit and by short term drop probes, only the Soviet Vega probes attempted to carry out 'long term' studies from within the upper atmosphere, though this was limited by the flyby nature of the mission and the fact that the balloon probes were battery powered. In fact I feel that a good case could be made for such a mission to be attempted in the future, the science payoff would be well worth it. See: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntr..._1969006258.pdf for the 23mb summary report. This post has been edited by gndonald: Aug 15 2007, 12:53 AM |
|
|
Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 5th June 2024 - 08:16 AM |
RULES AND GUIDELINES Please read the Forum Rules and Guidelines before posting. IMAGE COPYRIGHT |
OPINIONS AND MODERATION Opinions expressed on UnmannedSpaceflight.com are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of UnmannedSpaceflight.com or The Planetary Society. The all-volunteer UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderation team is wholly independent of The Planetary Society. The Planetary Society has no influence over decisions made by the UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderators. |
SUPPORT THE FORUM Unmannedspaceflight.com is funded by the Planetary Society. Please consider supporting our work and many other projects by donating to the Society or becoming a member. |