white@nereid.ists.ca (H. Peter White) (06/18/91)
I've heard rumors lately that Pioneer Venus will be sent into the atmosphere to collect data for future Magellan work. I guess this would mean that Pioneer Venus will collect data till the very end. Anyone else heard anything about this, or did I hear wrong? H. Peter White " Whoever undertakes to set himself white@nereid.sal.ists.ca up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge fs300367@yusol.bitnet is shipwrecked by the laughter of 665-5448 (SAL/ISTS) the Gods. " - Albert Einstein
pgf@space.mit.edu (Peter G. Ford) (06/18/91)
In article <1991Jun17.224627.3146@ists.ists.ca> white@nereid (H. Peter White) writes: >I've heard rumors lately that Pioneer Venus will be sent into the atmosphere to >collect data for future Magellan work. I guess this would mean that Pioneer >Venus will collect data till the very end. >Anyone else heard anything about this, or did I hear wrong? You've got it half right--the Pioneer Venus spacecraft will indeed be captured by the Venus atmosphere, and burn up, sometime next fall, but it won't be deliberate... the spacecraft ran out of fuel long, long ago, (1980, I think) and its orbit has been wandering ever since. Its last few months will be closely monitored by Magellan engineers (among others), in order to plan for an aero-breaking manoeuver in which the Magellan spacecraft (which *does* have plenty of reserve fuel), will dip into the fringes of the Venus atmosphere in order to turn its current elliptical orbit into a more nearly circular one, which is desired in order (a) to obtain high quality measurements of the Venus gravity field, and (b) to increase radar resolution in polar regions. Peter Ford MIT and Magellan Project (also Pioneer Venus, a long time ago).