Future Planetary Exploration has a tetrad of posts about proposals to explore Venus. Venus has been something of the ugly stepsister for the US Space Program. People talk about her, but only a few guys with no money want to take her on a date. Perhaps that will change, but unless Obama ups the funding for NASA's budget in general, this isn't going to happen. Again.
First post is about the proposed flagship mission to Venus. Orbiter, check. Balloons, check. Landers, check. Landers that take samples...WUH?! This would be very expensive: it's a flag ship mission after all. However, if we are unable to fund the Europa and Titan missions...The next three posts are about how to do the Venus exploration in smaller, cheaper chunks. Or less expensive methods. Read them here, here and here.
I wonder if people realize just how long it has been since we sent Magellan to Venus?
First post is about the proposed flagship mission to Venus. Orbiter, check. Balloons, check. Landers, check. Landers that take samples...WUH?! This would be very expensive: it's a flag ship mission after all. However, if we are unable to fund the Europa and Titan missions...The next three posts are about how to do the Venus exploration in smaller, cheaper chunks. Or less expensive methods. Read them here, here and here.
I wonder if people realize just how long it has been since we sent Magellan to Venus?
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