Venus Express Options

[Decepticon]

Any Earth departure images planned?

[Guest_Sedna_*]

Anyway, I think that there is science on the one hand and marketing on the other...

[Guest_Sedna_*]

Any Earth departure images planned?

It will take some images, for calibration purposes, but quite far away from the Earth. There are no further scientific activities planned for the cruise phase.

[Rakhir]

The critical Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP) for Venus Express was completed today.
The spacecraft is performing flawlessly.

Trajectory Correction Manoeuvre (TCM-1) was successfully completed.
The craft is now on the exact trajectory required for Venus Orbit Insertion in five months' time.

With LEOP running so smoothly, controllers were able to bring forward some platform commissioning activities, which were originally planned for the weekend.

With the start of the Near Earth Commissioning Phase, payload activities are due to start on 18 November; these initial switch-on and test activities are scheduled to be complete by 14 December.

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Venus_Express/SEMK9UJBWFE_0.html

Rakhir

[Rakhir]

Platform Completes near Earth Commissioning.
The remaining testing activities on the platform side will take place in January (thermal characterization) and in February (main engine calibration).

Payload Commissioning Underway : MAG, VIRTIS, and VMC.
During this period the Earth-Moon observation is planned

http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/in...fobjectid=38323

[remcook]

the earth data cubes from VIRTIS look very promising! Imagine seeing all the cloud layers of venus with this! and even the surface! (sorry just being a bit excited )

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMOIGULWFE_index_0.html

[ljk4-1]

Venus Express - End of Near Earth Commissioning Phase

During the reporting period the last activities of the Near Earth Commissioning
have been completed according to the plan. Two slots with the New Norcia ground
station have been dedicated to test the performance of the TTC subsystem and of
the Ultra Stable Oscillator (USO) for the radio science experiment (VeRA). In
both occasions problems in operating the ground station equipment have affected
the test.

http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/in...fobjectid=38473

[ljk4-1]

VENUS EXPRESS STATUS REPORT

Report for Period 16 December 2005 - 05 January 2006

During the reporting period the spacecraft has been configured for a passive cruise phase and the only activities conducted on top of the routine ones are the DDOR tests with ESA (NNOCEB) and DSN (GDS-CAN) stations.

http://sci.esa.int/jump.cfm?oid=38559

[RNeuhaus]

At the end of the last NNO pass in the reporting period (DOY 006, 06:00) Venus Express was 15.5 million km from the Earth, 131.7 million km from the Sun, and 25.5 million km from Venus. The one-way signal travel time was 52 seconds.

VE is already above than 38% of distance from Earth.

Future Milestones

The coming week will mark a "close to inferior conjunction" condition, therefore, no major operations are planned. The actual conjunction condition will be reached on DoY 011 at around 18:00 when the angular distance between the Sun and the spacecraft as seen from the Earth will be approximately 1.6 degrees. No significant impact is foreseen on the RF link.

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/Venus_Expre...ase_Begins.html

Rodolfo

[Rakhir]

An interesting milestone today : We are at the halfway point of the 153 days cruise phase.

And it's already a couple of days that VE is closer from Venus than from Earth.

On January 19th, Venus Express was 21.9 million km from the Earth and 19.2 million km from Venus.

http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/in...fobjectid=38648

Rakhir

[ljk4-1]

Venus Express articles in ESA Bulletin Number 124 online here:

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ESA_Publicatio...W3IMZCIE_0.html

Contents

Venus Express: The Mission Begins

The Venus Express Mission
Donald McCoy, Thorsten Siwitza & Roy Gouka

Venus Express: The Spacecraft
Alistair J. Winton et al.

The Science Return from Venus Express
Håkan Svedhem, Olivier Witasse & Dmitri V. Titov

Venus Express Ground Segment and Mission Operations
Manfred Warhaut & Andrea Accomazzo

ESA’s New Cebreros Station Ready to Support Venus Express
Manfred Warhaut, Rolf Martin & Valeriano Claros

The Roadmap for a GMES Operational Oceanography Mission
Mark Drinkwater et al.

A Tsunami Early-Warning System
– The Paris Concept
Manuel Martin-Neira & Christopher Buck

EGNOS Operations and Their Planned Evolution
Laurent Gauthier et. al.

The BGAN Extension Programme
Juan J. Rivera, Eyal Trachtman & Madhavendra Richharia

Subscribe to the printed version of the ESA Bulletin free of charge. Visit our Bookshop for ordering information.

[stevo]

Thanks, this is really interesting background.
But the pedant in me can’t help but quibble at the following quote from the Venus Express Mission section:

“… surface temperatures reach 470C (about ten times higher than the hottest temperature on Earth), “

I know it’s outreach and all, but that’s simply wrong, conceptually wrong. 470C (~740K) is about 2.5 times Earth surface temperature.

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

It's about 10 times higher above FREEZING than the highest temperatures on Earth, which presumably is what they meant to say.

[Rakhir]

Continued Spacecraft Testing
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/in...fobjectid=38746

During next week the Main Engine pressurisation and calibration will take place.
After the Main Engine burn, an eventual correction will be done one week later.

[Rakhir]

Successful Venus Express main engine test
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMVX5MVGJE_index_0.html

One hundred days after beginning its cruise to Venus, ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft successfully tested its main engine for the first time in space.