This an update to my original post from 4 December. In a press release today the Japanese space agency JAXA confirmed that the smaller rocket motors had fired as planned and the Akatsuki is now in orbit round Venus. The announcement (http://global.jaxa.jp/press/2015/12/20151207_akatsuki.html) went on to say: "The orbiter is now in good health. We are… Continue reading Akatsuki – a second chance – Updated (7 Dec 2015)
Tag: Venus
Akatsuki – a second chance – 7 December 2015
On 7 December 2010, after a six month journey, the Japanese spacecraft Akatsuki (named after the Japanese word for dawn) arrived at Venus after a six month journey. It was only the second spacecraft launched since 1989 to visit the Earth's sister planet and, if it had succeeded in orbiting Venus, it would have had… Continue reading Akatsuki – a second chance – 7 December 2015
Venus -A Mysterious World
In The Radio Man, a 1924 science fiction by the American author Ralph Milne Farley, a radio engineer, Myles Standish Cabot, invents a radio apparatus that teleports him to another world, Venus. This version of Venus has boiling hot oceans, but the land is much cooler, and the continent he lands on is inhabited by two races. One… Continue reading Venus -A Mysterious World
The Morning Star-Venus
Venus, is the brightest planet and third brightest natural object in the sky. It has an orbit closer to the Sun that the Earth, which it is mainly a daytime object and exhibits phases similar to the Moon. Galileo's observations of these phases supported heliocentrism, contrasting the geocentric model favored by the Church.
Explaining Science 