Venus Express to plunge further into Venus

in space on 2014-06-09 23:08 (#3NF)

The European Space Agency's Venus Express probe is set to perform a series of aerobraking manoeuvres over the next few weeks in the upper atmosphere of our twin planet. The spacecraft has been collecting data on the Venusian atmosphere in a polar orbit around Venus since 2006, but is scheduled to run out of fuel later this year. The aerobraking will plunge the craft deeper into the atmosphere and hopefully get some last minute data before its end of life.

Re: No astronomy buffs here? (Score: 1)

by kerrany@pipedot.org on 2014-06-12 19:00 (#231)

Astronomy fan, does that count? I too would like to hear from the hobbyist astronomers. I gotta say, I love how they manage to eke every last drop of data out of these missions - here's a dying probe, let's make sure it drops into the atmosphere so we can get a closer look before it stops transmitting. This seems to be habit with these teams, and it's encouraging to see how damn smart they all are. Gives me hope for the future!