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Venus Express Blasts Off
kitzilla writes "The European Space Agency's Venus Express probe has been successfully launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The mission's first attempt was scrubbed last month after technicians spotted a problem with the lift vehicle. In about five months, Venus Express will pull into orbit around our closest planetary neighbor and begin five months of scheduled observations. On the short list of mission objectives: a detailed mapping of Venus' surface, a survey of the planet's complex atmosphere, and a look into the possibility of active Venusian volcanoes."
And this just after news about how the US is cutting down on NASA's budget and missions like this..
"I used to have that really cool,funny sig
we can get Government funded missions to map and photograph other planets that place the results in the public domain but we can't get Government funded missions to map and photograph our own planet which put the results in the public domain? It occurs to me that the latter would not only be substantially cheaper to do but also far more useful to the general populous. A multi-national effort to provide such mapping would cost each country peanuts and would provide numerous benifits.
I used to have a better sig but it broke.
I think that's a little unfair. We know for a fact that Earth is completely infested with life. Everywhere on Earth that life could imaginably exist, it is found, and also in some places where we never imagined we would find it at all. Deep underground in solid rock, in the furthest Antarctic, in the driest deserts, in the irradiated high atmosphere, at volcanic vents in the ocean completely independent from the sun... Everywhere. We also know that Earth life can survive in spore form in space; bacteria survived for years on the Surveyor moon probe until returned by Apollo. In recent years, what we've discovered about the ability of life to adapt to hellish conditions has been absolutely amazing.
So it's not so unreasonable to look for life on Mars. It's not that far-fetched. Other places that might be worth checking are the upper atmosphere of Venus (where it's cooler) and the oceans of Europa. Whether native life or Earth life spread by impacts, it's not unrealistic to suppose it might be there and, if found, it would be a huge discovery.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
Because we like to look for potential habitats for life elsewhere in the solar system. And a volcanic vent could easily be the coolest and most hospitable location on the surface of Venus, particularly if the volcano is venting some water.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Easy! God made it that way. Damn, this Intelligent Design science stuff is so easy! Can I have a Nobel prize now?
Wonder if it will outlast it's planned life, like the mars rover.
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Arianespace has signed a deal with Russia to include their soyuz rocket into their products range. I'm not an expert but it makes sense to use it for such mission, Ariane5 is mainly dedicated to commercial satellites.
I'm maybe wrong but I think soon Soyuz rockets will be launched from French guinea.
This is a small part of a European/Russian biggest plan to develop more and more solutions together.
Arthur C. Clarke, in a footnote his 1968 book "The Conquest of Space," said venusian sounded good but was wrong, venerian raised false hopes, and cytherian was correct but only classics scholars knew what it meant.
The clearance system sounds logical. It is not. It is completely arbitrary. -- John Bolton