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ESA gets ready for double Venus flyby by Staff Writers Paris (ESA) Aug 03, 2021
Solar Orbiter and BepiColombo are set to make space history with two Venus flybys just 33 hours apart on 9 and 10 August. The two spacecraft need the gravitational swingby to help them lose a little orbital energy in order to reach their destinations towards the centre of the Solar System. The double flyby also offers an unprecedented opportunity to study the Venus environment from different locations at same time and, moreover, in locations that are not typically visited by a dedicated planetary orbiter. Solar Orbiter, a partnership between ESA and NASA, will fly by Venus on 9 August with a closest approach of 7995 km at 04:42 UTC. Throughout its mission it makes repeated gravity assist flybys of Venus to get closer to the Sun, and to change its orbital inclination, boosting it out of the ecliptic plane, to get the best - and first - views of the Sun's poles. BepiColombo, a partnership between ESA and JAXA, will fly by Venus at 13:48 UTC on 10 August at an altitude of just 550 km. BepiColombo is on its way to the mysterious innermost planet of the solar system, Mercury. It needs flybys of Earth, Venus and Mercury itself, together with the spacecraft's solar electric propulsion system, to help steer into Mercury orbit against the immense gravitational pull of the Sun.
Photos or it didn't happen The cameras provide black-and-white snapshots in 1024 x 1024 pixel resolution, and are positioned on the Mercury Transfer Module such that they also capture the spacecraft's solar arrays and antennas. During the closest approach Venus will fill the entire field of view, but as the spacecraft changes its orientation the planet will be seen passing behind the spacecraft structural elements. The images will be downloaded in batches, one by one, with the first image expected to be available in the evening of 10 August, and the majority on 11 August. Furthermore, there may be an opportunity for Solar Orbiter's SoloHI imager to observe the nightside of Venus in the week before closest approach. SoloHI usually takes images of the solar wind - the stream of charged particles constantly released from the Sun - by capturing the light scattered by electrons in the wind. It is - unfortunately! - not expected that one spacecraft will be able to image the other. Even at their closest the spacecraft will be more than 575 thousand kilometres apart.
Multipoint science The data collected during the flybys will also provide useful inputs to ESA's future Venus orbiter, EnVision, which was selected earlier this year and will launch to Venus in the 2030s.
Where to next? During the night of 1-2 October BepiColombo will see its destination for the first time, making its first of six flybys of Mercury - with this one from just 200 km distance. The two planetary orbiters will be delivered into Mercury orbit in late 2025, tasked with studying all aspects of this mysterious inner planet from its core to surface processes, magnetic field, and exosphere, to better understand the origin and evolution of a planet close to its parent star. On 27 November, Solar Orbiter will make a final flyby of Earth at 460 km, kicking off the start of its main mission. It will continue to make regular flybys of Venus to progressively increase its orbit inclination to best observe the Sun's uncharted polar regions, which is key to understanding the Sun's 11 year activity cycle.
The weather forecast for Venus Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jul 22, 2021 Little is known about the weather at night on Venus as the absence of sunlight makes imaging difficult. Now, researchers have devised a way to use infrared sensors on board the Venus orbiter Akatsuki to reveal the first details of the nighttime weather of our nearest neighbor. Their analytical methods could be used to study other planets including Mars and gas giants as well. Furthermore, the study of Venusian weather granted by their methods could allow researchers to learn more about the mechanisms un ... read more
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