Venus Express Radar? Options

[Bubbinski]

Ah, I notice there's a bunch of new forums on this site. So I figure I might as well inaugurate at least one of them.

I see that the Europeans are going to launch a sister ship to Mars Express, only this one's going to Venus. I've checked out the ESA web site and it mentions that the probe will study the atmosphere of Venus as well as measure the surface temperatures. But the site didn't say much more, nor did I see a breakdown of what instruments the craft had. Is there going to be a radar on that spacecraft as well, to make follow up observations of targets Magellan caught? Or is there going to be a camera similar to Mars Express, only targeted toward the atmospheric clouds? And are there going to be any atmospheric or surface probes launched from the main craft, a la Beagle 2?

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

You'll see them in a somewhat fuzzy way -- the 6 near-IR bands which reach all the way to Venus' surface (an amazing and totally accidental discovery of the early 1980s) allow photos that map the planet's nightside surface temperatures, and so clearly show its higher-altitude regions. (During its Venus flyby back in 1990, Galileo got some very nice global images of this type with its NIMS.) The open question is whether they will reveal anything else about the surface, such as allowing mapping of some of its minerals -- but at a minimum they'll allow a search for active volcanism.