ESA Venus Mission Delayed

MrShaggy writes "The BBC is reporting that the ESA has announced that they have to hold the Venus Mission. According to the article, contamination is being blamed. From the article: 'Esa said the delay had been prompted by the discovery that insulation from the rocket launcher had contaminated the Venus Express spacecraft. "The satellite is contaminated, so they will have to dismantle and re-mount it again," a spokesperson for the space agency told the BBC News website.'"

Comments

At least they're doing it right.

[CyricZ]

It's good to see that they're doing the right thing, regardless of the financial costs.

It'll tell us something about greenhouse gases

[Cerdic]

From the article:

Composed chiefly of carbon dioxide, Venus' atmosphere generates intense greenhouse warming, whereby trapped solar radiation heats the surface of the planet to an average of temperature of 467C.

Experts think Venus could teach us more about how the Earth's climate will respond to the release of greenhouse gases resulting from human activities.

It will tell us what many of us know - that putting too much CO2 into the atmosphere will heat up the planet. Unfortunately, those with real power to do anything about it will continue to aim for quick gains with little regard for the future.

I know someone will respond about how the earth naturally spews CO2, but many of our processes that produce CO2 also produce pollutants such as CO, arsenic, and PCBs. These other pollutants are proven to be dangerous. Why does nobody (hello media?) ever mention that?

Re:It'll tell us something about greenhouse gases

[biryokumaru]

It is my (perhaps misguided) understanding that there are extremophiles and such which might likely be closely linked to our very most primordial ancestors. Were we to kill off all land-based life on earth, within them would lay enough evolutionary basis to rebuild the oxygen breathing world (over the course of a billion years, maybe). As you seem to be more well versed in this than I, could you confirm this as fact or fiction?

Also, I think Australia is an excellent example. I do not know how long it normally takes humanity to destroy entire species, but we've fairly easily wiped out the dodo and the carrier pigeon. Australia is still teeming with life. It may be much unlike its previous design, but we haven't killed off the whole place. It's just found a new ecological balance, as I understand it. Is this incorrect? Are native species continuing to decline amongst the human-introduced predators?

Re:It will never go

[MrShaggy]

I have a book. Men are from Mars, women are nuts.

More info at the wikipedia

[Saiyine]

Interestingly enough, the mission has a pretty complete wikipedia article.

But even better are these pictures of the surface of Venus from the old Venera missions.

Re:Could somebody please explain

[amightywind]

I used to work at Hughes Space and Communications (now Boeing). All satellites used to undergo a vibration test on a giant paint shaker-like device. Ostensibly it was to verify that the satellite could handle vibrations during launch. The joke was on the factory floor that it was really to clean out screwdrivers and ham sandwiches left behind by the technicians who assembled the satellite. They actually put a white sheet under the rig to catch any parts that fell off.