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ESA’s Venus Express to reach final destination

7 April 2006

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Venus Express is studying largely unknown phenomena in the Venusian atmosphere like never before. Its suite of instruments is also digging into the interaction between the solar wind and the planetary environment. In addition, the mission is gathering glimpses of the planet's surface, which is strictly coupled with its dense atmosphere.

Credits: ESA (Image by AOES Medialab)

Timeline of major VOI events (some times subject to change)

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Artist's impression of Venus Express orbit insertion

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Artist's impression of the Venus Express orbit insertion on 11 April 2006. In this phase of the mission, the most challenging since launch, the spacecraft's main engine burns for about 50 minutes, to reduce its speed with respect to Venus to allow the the spacecraft to be captured by the planet's gravitation.

Credits: ESA - AOES Medialab

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Artist's impression of the Venus Express orbit insertion

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Reaching final orbit

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This artist's impression shows the trajectory of ESA's Venus Express to its final destination, planet Venus. In the first week of March 2006, the spacecraft crossed the path of the planet around the Sun. The trajectory took it inside the orbit of Venus to ‘anticipate’ the celestial motion of the planet and finally to catch up with it on 11 April 2006. Once at Venus, the spacecraft will have travelled 400 million kilometres. The injection into orbit will put the spacecraft into a first, elongated orbit lasting about 9 days. On 7 May 2006, after a series of manoeuvres and 16 ever smaller loops around the planet, Venus Express will reach its final operational orbit, lasting 24 hours.

Credits: ESA - C. Carreau

Observations in capture orbit

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Venus Express over atmospheric storms at Venus's North pole

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This artist's impression shows Venus Express over the 'double-eye' atmospheric vortex at the planet's North pole. In fact two enormous atmospheric vortices, with very complex shapes and behaviour, rotate vertically over both poles of Venus, recycling the atmosphere downwards. The vortex at the North pole, the only one previously studied in some detail, completes a full rotation in only three days. Venus Express' observations will help understand how the stormy atmospheric circulation on Venus work.

Credits: ESA - AOES Medialab

…and plenty of science to come

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At Venus, no protection from the solar wind

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As shown in this artist's impression, Venus is a planet with no intrinsic magnetic field and so, differently from Earth, it has no shield to protect it from the continuous attack of the capricious and violent solar wind. ESA's Venus Express will study how much of the atmosphere of the planet escaped under the bombardment of the solar wind and how much it combined with the surface material.

Credits: ESA - C. Carreau

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Investigating atmospheric and surface properties

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Through the Venus Radio Science Experiment on board Venus Express - using the powerful radio link bewteen the spacecraft and Earth - scientists will investigate the conditions of the ionosphere of the planet (upper atmospheric layer), and study the local conditions of the solar wind. The experiment will also allow the study of the physical properties of mid atmospheric layers and the roughness and electrical properties of the surface.

Credits: ESA - AOES Medialab

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ESA's 35-metre deep-space dish antenna, located at Cebreros, near Avila, Spain.

Credits: Cebreros

Looking at Venus

Venus within ESA probe reach And now… straight to Venus!Successful Venus Express main engine test First light for the Venus Monitoring Camera Venus Express performs flawlessly, LEOP complete Venus Express mission operations update Venus Express en route to probe the planet's hidden mysteries