Venus Express – Initial Science Observations at Venus

Paper number

IAC-05-A3.2.B.04

Author

Mr. Raymond Hoofs, European Space Agency (ESA)/ESTEC, The Netherlands

Coauthor

Dr. Detlef Koschny, European Space Agency (ESA)/ESTEC, The Netherlands

Coauthor

Mr. Hakan Svedhem, European Space Agency (ESA)/ESTEC, The Netherlands

Coauthor

Dr. Dmitri Titov, Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Quirien Wijnands, European Space Agency (ESA)/ESTEC, The Netherlands

Year

2005

Abstract

With the Venus Express mission the European Space Agency (ESA) is sending its first spacecraft to Venus. It will be launched in October 2005 by a Soyuz-Fregat launcher and will arrive at Venus in April 2006. The mission covers a broad range of scientific goals including physics, chemistry, dynamics and structure of the atmosphere as well as atmospheric interaction with the surface and several aspects of the surface itself. Furthermore it will investigate the plasma environment and interaction of the solar wind with the atmosphere. In order to fulfill these objectives a multi-purpose remote sensing and in situ payload is required. This was made possible by re-using the Mars Express spacecraft bus and some of the experiments available from the Mars Express and Rosetta projects together with a few new instruments.\\ 
The Venus Express Science Operations Centre (VSOC) has the task of coordinating and implementing the science operations for the mission in order to assure that all the science objectives can be fulfilled. Effectively the VSOC utilizes the planning strategy and software tools developed within the ESA Planetary Mission Division at ESTEC.\\
The first big challenge for the VSOC is to get Venus Express into routine science operations as quickly as possible once it has arrived at Venus. In order to achieve this Venus Express will perform a commissioning of a set of typical observations, which are the building blocks for the future routine science operations.\\
Based on these initial observations the complete mission science activity plan will be reviewed and updated in order to optimize the science return of the mission, while staying within the environmental constraints and spacecraft resources. Especially the thermal behavior of the spacecraft has a big impact on the flexibility of the science observations. These factors will be carefully monitored during this period.\\
This presentation gives an overview of the challenges of the initial science observation in the harsh Venus environment. It will summarize the different types of science observations that Venus Express will make and how these are scheduled over the complete mission.

Abstract document

IAC-05-A3.2.B.04.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-05-A3.2.B.04.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

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