ESA's Venus Express climbs to new orbit following aerobraking experiment

Venus Express:Venus Express: up above the clouds so high
Venus Express aerobraking. Credit: ESA - C. Carreau







"We have collected valuable data on the Venusian atmosphere in a region difficult to characterise by other means," says Håkan Svedhem, ESA's Venus Express project scientist.

A day in the life of Venus Express. Credit: ESA/MPS/DLR/IDA, M. Pérez-Ayúcar & C. Wilson



It also experienced extreme heating cycles, with temperatures rising by over 100°C during several 100 second-long passages through the atmosphere.

In addition, the atmospheric drag at these lower altitudes was so great that the spacecraft's orbital period was reduced by more than an hour.

"The spacecraft has proven to be very robust and has apparently experienced no substantial degradation in any area, but a detailed evaluation is still to take place," says Joerg Fischer, Venus Express operations engineer.

At the end of the campaign, 15 thruster burns raised the craft's altitude, preventing it from dropping into the atmosphere. The last was executed on Thursday evening, boosting Venus Express to a new altitude of 460 km at its closest and 63 000 km at its furthest. This new orbit takes 22 hours 24 minutes to complete.

"During the 15 manoeuvres, each thruster fired more than 8000 pulses and burned a total of about 5.2 kg of propellant to raise the spacecraft to this new altitude," adds Joerg.



"We are delighted with the success of the experimental aerobraking campaign, and are looking forward to assessing the details over the coming months," says Patrick Martin, mission manager.

"Meanwhile, we are enjoying the view from our new around Venus, and plan to continue augmenting the scientific return of this exciting mission."

Explore further

Venus Express rises again

Citation: ESA's Venus Express climbs to new orbit following aerobraking experiment (2014, July 29) retrieved 3 July 2020 from https://phys.org/news/2014-07-esa-venus-climbs-orbit-aerobraking.html

Feedback to editors

User comments