Venus Express – To Venus with Love

Venus received a visitor from its sister planet Earth in the morning of April 11, 2006, when the European space probe “Venus Express” completed a five-month interplanetary cruise and swooped into orbit to begin the first comprehensive scientific survey of its sultry atmosphere. Venus arrival operations began at 2:03 a.m. EDT, when the craft began to maneuver to the precise orientation required for the orbital insertion engine firing. The process aligned the probe’s main engine with the direction of travel. During the critical burn, the spacecraft passed behind Venus and controllers lost the carrier signal from the probe for around ten minutes. Officials at ESA’s Space Operations Center (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, received confirmation of the successful completion of the 50-minute engine burn at around 4:07 a.m. EDT. The burn slowed the velocity of “Venus Express” by 15 percent. This decrease in relative speed allowed Venus’ gravity to capture the craft in what was planned to be an egg-shaped orbit. After that it had taken almost a month for “Venus Express” to reach the planned operational science orbit, which is a 24-hour polar orbit with a low point of approximately 240 kilometres and a high point of 65.980 kilometres. “Venus Express” seeks to answer key questions left from earlier exploration of the hostile planet. Its instrument package will largely focus on the thick atmosphere of Venus, which holds secrets that elude scientists since NASA’s “Magellan” radar observatory.

	This animation is composed of six different images (in false colour) taken by VIRTIS between April 12 and April 19, 2006, and shows the rotation and shape variation of a double vortex at Venus’ south pole over time. The sequences were obtained during different time slots and at different distances from Venus. Around the south pole it is possible to see a peculiar double-eye vortex structure, never clearly seen by any other mission before. Image Credit: ESA/VIRTIS/INAF-IASF/Observatoire de Paris-LESIA GIF-animation; 1200 x 800 Pixels; 1.1 MB
	This composite image shows six different false colour views of Venus as seen by VIRTIS between April 12 and April 19, 2006. The sequences were used to create the animation shown above. Image Credit: ESA/VIRTIS/INAF-IASF/Observatoire de Paris-LESIA 3595 x 1595 Pixels; 1.9 MB
	This composite image shows six infrared views of Venus as seen by VIRTIS between April 12 and April 19, 2006. The infrared radiation coming from Venus was converted into a red colour scheme. The south polar vortex structure is visible from different view points close to the centre of each infrared view. Image Credit: ESA/VIRTIS/INAF-IASF/Observatoire de Paris-LESIA 1860 x 2660 Pixels; 1.4 MB
	These two images were taken by NASA’s Mariner 10 spacecraft during a Venus fly-by on its way to Mercury (left) and NASA’s Pioneer Venus spacecraft (right). The images provided the first glimpses of a stormy atmospheric behaviour at the south pole of Venus. Image Credit: NASA 800 x 400 Pixels; 177 KB
	This visible light image of Venus (at 380 nanometres) was taken by VIRTIS on April 19, 2006, from a distance of about 190.000 kilometres. In the day side it is possible to see interesting atmospheric stripe-like structures. Spotted for the first time by Mariner 10 in the early 1970s, they may be due to the presence of dust and aerosols in the atmosphere, but their true nature is still unexplained. Image Credit: ESA/VIRTIS/INAF-IASF/Observatoire de Paris-LESIA 920 x 740 Pixels; 162 KB
	This sequence of images was taken by VIRTIS between April 12 and April 19, 2006. Each image is a composite of the day side of Venus (left, in blue, taken in visible light at 380 nanometres) and the night side (right, in a red colour scheme, taken in infrared light at 1.7 microns). The visible part shows solar radiation reflected by the atmosphere. The infrared part shows complex cloud structures, revealed by the thermal radiation coming up from different atmospheric depths – the brighter the colour, the more radiation comes up from the lower atmospheric layers. Image Credit: ESA/VIRTIS/INAF-IASF/Observatoire de Paris-LESIA 1500 x 1100 Pixels; 407 KB
	Venus South Pole seen by VIRTIS Composite, false-colour view of Venus south pole captured by VIRTIS on April 12, 2006. Image Credit: ESA/INAF-IASF, Rome, Italy, and Observatoire de Paris, France 705 x 724 Pixels; 233 KB
	Venus Southern Hemisphere seen by VMC False-colour view of Venus south pole captured by VMC on April 12, 2006. Image Credit: ESA/MPS, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany 2000 x 1995 Pixels; 520 KB
	Venus A large, color-enhanced Venus mosaic created from multiple orange and UV filter images taken by the spacecraft Mariner 10 in 1974. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Mosaic by Mattias Malmer PNG; 3500 x 3500 Pixels; 3.6 MB This image appears on the front cover of ESA Bulletin 135 from August 2008: “Exploring Venus – Answering the Big Questions with Venus Express” (PDF; 2.3 MB)
	On its way to our nearest planetary neighbour, “Venus Express” tested its VIRTIS optics system by taking pictures of Earth and Moon when it was 3.5 million kilometres away. Image Credit: ESA/STARSEM/VIRTIS team 400 x 400 Pixels; 5 KB
	Tilting Launcher to Vertical Position The fully integrated Soyuz FG-Fregat vehicle carrying Venus Express, ESA’s first probe to Venus, is erected on the launch pad. Image Credit: ESA/STARSEM/VIRTIS team 1704 x 2560 Pixels; 669 KB
	Launcher Upright on Launch Pad The fully integrated Soyuz FG-Fregat vehicle carrying Venus Express stands upright on the launch platform, secured by the four support arms. Image Credit: ESA/STARSEM/VIRTIS team 2560 x 1704 Pixels; 773 KB
	Evening view of Venus Express The fully integrated Soyuz FG-Fregat vehicle carrying Venus Express standing on the launch complex in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Image Credit: ESA/STARSEM/VIRTIS team 2560 x 1920 Pixels; 1.2 MB
	Launch of Venus Express – Picture 1 The launch of STARSEM flight ST14 with a Soyuz-Fregat rocket carrying Venus Express. The mission successfully lifted off from Baikonur launch pad number 6. Image Credit: ESA/STARSEM/VIRTIS team 1660 x 2500 Pixels; 257 KB This image appears in a Softpedia Science News article: “Watch Out, It’s Raining Rocket Parts”
	Launch of Venus Express – Picture 2 The launch of STARSEM flight ST14 with a Soyuz-Fregat rocket carrying Venus Express. The mission successfully lifted off from Baikonur launch pad number 6. Image Credit: ESA/STARSEM/VIRTIS team 1833 x 2500 Pixels; 168 KB