The Venus Express spacecraft at the Baikonur cosmodrome. Venus Express -- the ESA's first mission to explore Earth's closest neighbour -- will be launched next Wednesday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.(AFP)
Posted on 10/18/2005 3:52:20 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
PARIS (AFP) - Venus Express, the European Space Agency's first mission to explore Earth's closest neighbour, will be launched next Wednesday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The ESA gave the prospective launch time as 0443 GMT.
The 1.27-tonne unmanned spacecraft, which will be taken aloft by a Russian-made Soyuz-Fregat rocket, is expected to arrive at Venus on April 6.
Venus Express, equipped with seven instruments, is intended to map the Venusian surface and weather system, looking at temperature variation, cloud formations, wind speeds and gas composition.
Its main goal is to help understand why Venus fell prey to runaway global warming.
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is similar in size, mass and age to Earth, but the two planets are otherwise quite different.
The so-called Morning Star has clouds of suffocating gas driven by hurricane-force winds, as well as a surface pressure and temperature high enough to crush and melt steel.
Venus Express is a sister to Mars Express, an orbiter that is now circling the Red Planet.
Further information is available on (www.esa.int).
The Venus Express spacecraft at the Baikonur cosmodrome. Venus Express -- the ESA's first mission to explore Earth's closest neighbour -- will be launched next Wednesday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.(AFP)
Its main goal is to help understand why Venus fell prey to runaway global warming.
Our first time on Venus since Venera, right?
Its main goal is to help understand why Venus fell prey to runaway global warming.
Probably no Kyoto treaty on Venus eh?
And why is that you may ask?
All Bush's fault!
oh, this ought to be rich. i thought the capsule would be pink.
I mean, it couldn't have been all those SUVs.
If only the Venusians had stifled their industrial
revolution and gone with solar power every thing would
have worked out.
Rampant engine of European probe, turged atop
Ruski rocket shaft, to probe Venus's delicate interior.
Pink, by all means, roseate even.
Haven't even established factual information on global warming on earth and already have declared it happened on Venus. We need those Venus instruments and data gatherers right now. They hold the key.:)
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