Fluid Outflows From Venus Impact Craters: Analysis From Magellan
The Magellan Venus Probe Frank Koconis. Contents Venus compared to Earth Earlier exploration of...
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Transcript of The Magellan Venus Probe Frank Koconis. Contents Venus compared to Earth Earlier exploration of...
The Magellan Venus Probe
Frank Koconis
Contents
• Venus compared to Earth• Earlier exploration of Venus• The problem: How to map the surface• The Magellan Mission• Working at JPL
Venus Compared to Earth
Earth Venus
Diameter 12,742 km 12,104 km
Distance from Sun 150,000,000 km 108,000,000 km
“Day” (rotation period) 1 day 243 days
Year 365 days 228 days
Surface gravity 1 G 0.9 G
Atmospheric composition N2 (77%), O2 (21%), Ar (1%), C02 (0.4%)
C02 (96%), N2 (3%), traces of other gasses
Atmospheric pressure 1.0 92
Average surface temperature 15° C (59° F) 477° C (891° F)
Earlier Exploration of Venus
From Earth, all we see is the clouds ->
Earlier Exploration of Venus (cont.)So we have sent many unmanned probes thereName Year Sent By Notes
Mariner 2 1962 USA Fly-by at 34,745 km
Venera 4 1967 Russia (USSR) Entered atmosphere
Mariner 5 1967 USA Fly-by at 4023 km
Venera 5 1969 Russia (USSR) Descended into atmosphere by parachute
Venera 6 1969 Russia (USSR) Descended into atmosphere by parachute
Venera 7 1970 Russia (USSR) Soft-landed on surface; survived 23 min.
Venera 8 1972 Russia (USSR) Soft-landed on surface
Mariner 10 1973 USA Fly-by en-route to Mercury
Venera 9 1975 Russia (USSR) Soft-landed and transmitted pictures
Venera 10 1975 Russia (USSR) Landed; transmitted pictures for 65 min.
Pioneer 12 1978 USA Orbited and mapped surface using radar
Pioneer 13 1978 USA Entered atmosphere
Earlier Exploration of Venus (cont.)…more than to any other planetName Year Sent By Notes
Venera 11 1978 Russia (USSR) Soft-landed
Venera 12 1978 Russia (USSR) Soft-landed but failed to return images
Venera 13 1981 Russia (USSR) Soft-landed and sent color images
Venera 14 1981 Russia (USSR) Drilled into soil and took seismic readings
Venera 15 1983 Russia (USSR) Orbiter; mapped surface using radar
Venera 16 1983 Russia (USSR) Orbiter; mapped surface using radar
Vega 1 1984 Russia (USSR) Dropped balloon probe en-route to Halley’s
Vega 2 1984 Russia (USSR) Dropped balloon probe en-route to Halley’s
The Surface of Venus (Venera 9)
The Problem: How to Map the Surface
• You can’t see through the clouds• BUT- Radar can go through• Using radar to map the topography of Venus– Earth-based radar: many attempts starting in the 1940’s– Pioneer 12: produced a map with about 100 km resolution– Venera 15 and 16: produced map with 2 km resolution– Magellan
The Magellan Mission
• Named after Ferdinand Magellan– Led first round-the-globe voyage (1519 – 1522)– Killed in a dispute between tribes in the Philippines, but
one of his ships completed the trip
• Magellan mission to Venus– Developed by the Jet Propulsion Lab and Martin Marietta– Launched on May 4, 1989– Reached Venus on August 7, 1990– End of mission: October 13, 1994
The Magellan Mission- The Probe
The Magellan Mission- Launch
The Magellan Mission- Getting There
The Magellan Mission- Mapping Venus
The Magellan Mission- Polar Orbit
The Magellan Mission- Results
• Goal was to map 70% of surface, to 100m resolution• Actually mapped 98%!
The Magellan Mission- Results
The Magellan Mission- Aphrodite Terra
The Magellan Mission- Maat Mons
The Magellan Mission- Addams Crater
The Magellan Mission- My Role
• On-board computer was called CDS (Command and Data Subsystem)– Much less powerful than a smartphone– Operated the probe with no assistance from Earth– New instructions sent once per week
• My role: testing the CDS (1984 – 1985)– CDS needed to detect and handle failures in spacecraft
components– To test this, a rack of test computers was built, each acting
as one component of the probe– Our team programmed these test computers
Working at JPL
JPL: The Campus
JPL: Spacecraft Assembly Facility
JPL: Deep-Space Network
Three sites: California, Australian and Spain
JPL: Tracking Facility
JPL: Museum
Ranger 7
Pioneer 1 Explorer 1
Frank Koconis• Education– Myers Park High School: Class of 1980– Georgia Institute of Technology: Class of 1984
• Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, with High Honors
– University of NC at Charlotte: 1992• Master of Science in Computer Science• Attended evening classes while working full time
• After JPL…– JPL was my first job after Georgia Tech– Since then, I have worked in many different industries
including telecommunications, textiles, government, teaching, petroleum and banking
– Currently working for Syncsort
Questions?
Web Linkshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magellan_%28spacecraft%29http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/magellan/guide.htmlhttp://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/venusfact.htmlhttp://www.astronomynotes.com/tables/tablesb.htmhttp://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=34067http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1989-033Bhttp://yooperabroad.wordpress.com/2012/07/31/nasa-jet-propulsion-lab/