Venus Express Options

[cndwrld]

Got another status report through the system. I hope another couple will get through and get posted soon. The archive is HERE.

No. 260 - Automation of spacecraft passes, thermal fuel gauging tests, start of the twenty-fourth solar eclipse season and the fifteenth Earth occultation season
Report for the period 28 April to 25 May 2013.

This reporting period covers four weeks of Venus Express operations. It includes the automation of spacecraft passes at the Mission Operations Centre, thermal fuel gauging tests, start of the twenty-fourth eclipse season and the fifteenth Earth occultation season.

[cndwrld]

Yay! We got another status report out. It is here in the VEX Status Report Archive, and covers 26 May to 22 June 2013.

It includes continuation of the twenty-fourth eclipse season and the fifteenth Earth occultation season, implementation of the automation of spacecraft passes at the Mission Operations Centre, thermal fuel gauging tests, and handling of a spacecraft event time anomaly.

[cndwrld]

The press release on the gravity waves on Venus was finally posted.

Yes, gravity waves exist on Venus. And no, these are not waves in gravity, but waves in clouds which happen to be called 'gravity waves' and which are common on Earth when calm stratified air passes over a high physical obstacle.

The information is on this ESA Venus Express page.

[Doug M.]

Really interesting stuff!

Two things caught my eye. One, Venus Express' elliptical orbit is placing tight constraints on observation -- they can only get good information periodically. As is often the case with Venus, we're left thinking "if we just had another mission..." No disrespect to Venus Express, which has been doing amazing work for seven years now! But, man, it would be nice to get a fresh set of eyes there, and a close-up look at that crazy atmosphere.

The other thing was "We don't yet fully understand how such topographic forcing can extend to high levels". The "ripples over a submerged boulder" analogy is useful, but we're talking about waves that are ~10x higher than the obstacle that's creating them, propagating up to a level where the atmosphere is a small fraction as dense. The physics of that have got to be interesting.


Doug M.

[Paolo]

It's more or less what Akatsuki was supposed to do. observe Venus'atmosphere continuously for up to 20 hours at a time.

[cndwrld]

Venus Express was deep into planning joint observations with Akatsuki, so we were very sad when VOI didn't work. But there's a chance they can get into some kind of orbit in 2015, so we live in hope. VEX won't live to see it, but we all hope it works for them.

Hopefully, I'll be alive when the next Venus mission arrives. Just so I can bore people with stories about how much harder it was in my day with Venus Express and Magellan. Did you know that for Magellan, there were no rockets? We had to get a big group of people together and throw the probe upwards.

[stevesliva]

Did you know that for Magellan, there were no rockets? We had to get a big group of people together and throw the probe upwards.

Well, if the spring action in the shuttle bay hadn't worked, that might've been the backup plan.

[dvandorn]

...We had to get a big group of people together and throw the probe upwards.

Yeah, I hear you. When I was a boy, we had to walk to the Moon. Uphill. Both ways.



-the other Doug

[cndwrld]

After a four month delay, the Venus Express status reports are again being published. They're a bit behind; this one covers July and August of 2013. The report can be found here.

[marsbug]

Venusian 'glory' hints that cloud chemistry is still not understood. Here's the (pay per view) paper.

[cndwrld]

The ESA page on the Venus glory paper is here.

[stevesliva]

In what context is "glory" canonical for this sort of thing? The term I first heard years ago referenced Ulloa, which seems to be "Ulloa's Halo," but I have to say that in recent googling "fogbow" is a good term.

The geometry also seems the same as Opposition Surge.

[mcaplinger]

In what context is "glory" canonical for this sort of thing?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glory_%28optical_phenomenon%29

[stevesliva]

There needs be some more linking between wikipedia articles. Because Ulloa, Boguer, and Fog Bow all duplicate some of that discussion.

Is "glory" canonical among pilots, then? Meteorologists?

[edit] Fog bow at least declares it's something different. Perhaps Antisolar point would be a good place to link to all the individual phenomena.

[mcaplinger]

Is "glory" canonical among pilots, then? Meteorologists?

I'm not an etymologist but "glory" is a well-accepted term that appears in popular scientific literature all the time (see, e.g., the references at the bottom of the wikipedia article), at least in the United States.

Perhaps there is some technical distinction between different effects, or perhaps it's called something different in other countries.