Venus Express

[neutralino]

The Venus Express is, as its name suggests a mission to Venus. It is a follow on mission from the Mars Express and was proposed in 2001 when the European Space Agency [1] were thinking of ways in which to reuse the Mars Express spacecraft. Experts have designed Venus Express to be the first spaceprobe to perform a global investigation of the Venusian atmosphere and of the plasma environment.

The mission launched back in 2005 and set out to answer the following questions [2]:

• What is the mechanism and what is the driving force of the super-rotation of the atmosphere?
• What are the basic processes in the general circulation of the atmosphere?
  
• What is the composition and chemistry of the lower atmosphere and the clouds?
• What is the past and present water balance in the atmosphere?
• What is the past and present water balance in the atmosphere?
• Is there currently volcanic and/or tectonic activity on the planet?

This week, two years after it's launch, scientists have published eight papers in Nature (which I reference together as [3]) reporting the first observations from the spacecraft, which entered Venus' atmosphere in 2006.

For further information on the papers released this week, see this Nature News article.

References
[1]European Space Agency
[2]Mission Objectives
[3] Markiewicz, W. J. et al. Nature 450, 633–636 (2007).
Piccioni, G. et al. Nature 450, 637–640 (2007).
Drossart, P. et al. Nature 450, 641–645 (2007).
Bertaux, J. - L. et al. Nature 450, 646–649 (2007).
Barabash, S. et al. Nature 450, 650–653 (2007).
Zhang, T. L. et al. Nature 450, 654–656 (2007).
Pätzold, M. et al. Nature 450, 657–660 (2007)
Russell, C. T. , Zhang, T. L. , Delva, M. , Magnes, W. , Strangeway, R. J. & Wei, H. Y. Nature 450, 661–662 (2007).

[neutralino]

Here is a link to the New Scientist article on the topic. I hope others can access this!