![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thewayneThe Japanese probe, named Akatsuki, has gone dark. Mission control thinks that the craft may have lost its pointing with Earth and are working to reestablish contact.
The probe got off to a slippery start. It launched on a Japanese rocket in 2010, then a burn to lower its orbit fired for only three minutes instead of twelve. This put it in an orbit around the Sun, instead of Venus. After much research and study, they were able to get it into the orbit of Venus by venting a large quantity of fuel oxidizer. The orbiter began "taking data in 2016 about the planet and its atmosphere. In 2018, the mission's lifetime was extended, and it has continued to collect data until this spring."
There are two solar probes that occasionally slingshot around Venus for a gravity assist to boost their orbits, but their scientific gazing is focused on the Sun.
As it happens, a woman on Russet's crew is a specialist and somewhat of a noted expert on Venus and studies it frequently. It's a difficult planet to study as the window that it's above the horizon is very small.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/05/our-only-mission-at-venus-may-have-just-gone-dark/
The probe got off to a slippery start. It launched on a Japanese rocket in 2010, then a burn to lower its orbit fired for only three minutes instead of twelve. This put it in an orbit around the Sun, instead of Venus. After much research and study, they were able to get it into the orbit of Venus by venting a large quantity of fuel oxidizer. The orbiter began "taking data in 2016 about the planet and its atmosphere. In 2018, the mission's lifetime was extended, and it has continued to collect data until this spring."
There are two solar probes that occasionally slingshot around Venus for a gravity assist to boost their orbits, but their scientific gazing is focused on the Sun.
As it happens, a woman on Russet's crew is a specialist and somewhat of a noted expert on Venus and studies it frequently. It's a difficult planet to study as the window that it's above the horizon is very small.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/05/our-only-mission-at-venus-may-have-just-gone-dark/
