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Space Science

ESA Venus Mission Delayed 75

Posted by Zonk from the use-spacely-sprokets dept.
MrShaggy writes "The BBC is reporting that the ESA has announced that they have to hold the Venus Mission. According to the article, contamination is being blamed. From the article: 'Esa said the delay had been prompted by the discovery that insulation from the rocket launcher had contaminated the Venus Express spacecraft. "The satellite is contaminated, so they will have to dismantle and re-mount it again," a spokesperson for the space agency told the BBC News website.'"
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ESA Venus Mission Delayed More

ESA Venus Mission Delayed

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  • At least they're doing it right. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by CyricZ ( 887944 ) on Saturday October 22, 2005 @08:50PM (#13854979)
    It's good to see that they're doing the right thing, regardless of the financial costs.

  • It will never go (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Women are from Venus.
    Obviously their ancestors are putting curses on the mission. This will prevent actual proof of women coming from Venus.
    THE WOMEN ANCESTORS ARE OUT TO GET YOU; they eat babies.

  • It'll tell us something about greenhouse gases (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Cerdic ( 904049 ) on Saturday October 22, 2005 @08:52PM (#13854998)
    From the article:

    Composed chiefly of carbon dioxide, Venus' atmosphere generates intense greenhouse warming, whereby trapped solar radiation heats the surface of the planet to an average of temperature of 467C.

    Experts think Venus could teach us more about how the Earth's climate will respond to the release of greenhouse gases resulting from human activities.

    It will tell us what many of us know - that putting too much CO2 into the atmosphere will heat up the planet. Unfortunately, those with real power to do anything about it will continue to aim for quick gains with little regard for the future.

    I know someone will respond about how the earth naturally spews CO2, but many of our processes that produce CO2 also produce pollutants such as CO, arsenic, and PCBs. These other pollutants are proven to be dangerous. Why does nobody (hello media?) ever mention that?

    • Re:It'll tell us something about greenhouse gases (Score:4, Interesting)

      by cnettel ( 836611 ) on Saturday October 22, 2005 @09:13PM (#13855103)
      Of course, nature is not all good. However, any statement regarding the natural emissions of CO2 also relates to the question of how different the levels in the biosphere (and atmosphere) have actually been and how it seems somewhat likely that, to some degree, this is an equilibrium system on Earth where, over time, a shift will cause other factors to counteract that shift.

      To me, this only means that the risk that we would be able to turn Earth into a Venus-like state is rather small. The problem just happens to be that (current) human cilization and activites are severly affected long before that. The current state of the climate might not be optimal, but many things rely on it. The worst thing is when that reliance on things being a certain way isn't even obvious to those most closely affected by any change, and/or those in power.

    • Re:It'll tell us something about greenhouse gases (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      There is still no real proof that the current trend of climate warming is not part of a very long term cycle that us humans wouldn't know about, since our existence is but a blip relative to the Earth's age...

    • Re:It'll tell us something about greenhouse gases (Score:4, Informative)

      by biryokumaru ( 822262 ) * <biryokumaru@gmail.com> on Saturday October 22, 2005 @10:04PM (#13855281)

      You might be interested in a process known as "Global Dimming," which some claim as the cause of the equitorial African droughts for the past twenty years. I believe the Indian government funded a few projects concerning this effect.

      • It's a bit more complex than that... More pollution -> blocks sunlight slightly, lowers average temperature -> changes path of air currents slightly -> africa loses rainy season -> drought.

        If it was happening uniformly it wouldn't have any effect... however industrialised countries are pumping a lot of crap into the atmosphere, so they're experiencing dimming more than non-industrialised countries.

        This was also apparently a cause of the hot summers they've had in france that have killed several
    • ...its not the CO2, its the fact that it is closer to the sun. Solar energy is a nonlinear function of distance so naturally its gonna have a helluvalot more energy at venus than at earth. Conversely its also why solar panels are very inefficient on Mars.

      -everphilski-
    • It is certainly more than about explaining to all the retards who refuse to listen about global warming (Yes, including those [wikipedia.org] that refused to sign the Kyoto agreement). To those that are involved, it would be more about sheer intellectual curiosity. For instance, think of how neat it would be if the mission finds evidence that (some form of) life once existed on Venus.
    • It will tell us what many of us know - that putting too much CO2 into the atmosphere will heat up the planet.

      ...and that the climate of Venus was caused by positive feedback. As the temperature increases more water is lost to space. Without water the carbon stays in the atmosphere and temperature continues to rise.

      Feedback loops which we have never observed are hard to model and easy to argue about.

  • I guess all the "But does it run Linux?" jokes will be skipped on this one.

  • venusians breath a collective sigh of relief... (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    And the Venusians breathed a sigh of relief because the European invasion was staved off yet a few more days due to their French connections.

  • More info at the wikipedia (Score:5, Informative)

    by Saiyine ( 689367 ) on Saturday October 22, 2005 @09:43PM (#13855213) Homepage

    Interestingly enough, the mission has a pretty complete wikipedia article [wikipedia.org].

    But even better are these pictures of the surface of Venus [mentallandscape.com] from the old Venera missions.
  • Well, we are thinking about building a Space Elevator, so we could get rid of some of it that way. I mean, Carbon Nanotubes requires Carbon afterall. Then once we build a couple (cuz, you know one won't be enough), we can extract even more Carbon from the Oceans and send it out into space.

    Then we could mine Iron asteroids and use the Carbon we sent from Earth to make steel. It could happen....

    • Carbon dioxide is being scubbed from the atmosphere all of the time by the formation of limestone (calcium carbonate). No need to put it anywhere. In fact some scientists believe that the process of removal of CO2 from the atmosphere will eventually cause photosynthesis to cease and end life on earth. Granted, this process works over the very long term (1 Gyr). Volcanic outgasing and burning of hydrocarbons still major sources of CO2 in the short term.

      • We'll never run out of Carbon Dioxide. From what I understand the Oceans absorb more than what could be absorbed from the creation of Limestone. The thing I don't know is if the Carbon Dioxide is able to settle to the Ocean floor. I imagine Carbon itself does when marine life dies and becomes sediment. Then it can all be "recycled" back into magma chambers via subduction. That's a painfully slow process too, but eventually, the carbon dioxide comes back out during volcanic eruptions.

        I think it's saf

        • CO2 is recycled by erosion. My point is that over geologic time volcanic activity will slow down as Earth's radiogenic heat supply vanishes. This will reduce the amount of CO2 released by outgasing. The erosional component is still there, but that process releases much less CO2 then is abosorbed by calcite production. Carbon does not predominate at great depth in the ocean. What sits down there are called anoxic pelagic clays. What ends up on the ocean floor is not important as a carbon sink. The oldest oce

  • Is this an excercise in unnecessary cleanliness, or does the spacecraft actually cease to function normally when "contaminated"? What's the point? I never quite understood this aspect of big government space initiatives.

    • Re:Could somebody please explain (Score:5, Interesting)

      by amightywind ( 691887 ) on Saturday October 22, 2005 @10:16PM (#13855315) Journal

      I used to work at Hughes Space and Communications (now Boeing). All satellites used to undergo a vibration test on a giant paint shaker-like device. Ostensibly it was to verify that the satellite could handle vibrations during launch. The joke was on the factory floor that it was really to clean out screwdrivers and ham sandwiches left behind by the technicians who assembled the satellite. They actually put a white sheet under the rig to catch any parts that fell off.

    • Certain things on a space probe do not particularly like being contaminated, such as ohhhh I don't know, lenses [nasa.gov]?
    • If my computer can still work with a dust bunny big enough to freak out Godzilla in it you'd think a probe that costs tens of billions would be fairly resilent. Then again it may be a survival of the fittest situation. Having been built in a clean room they are like bubble kids that have no resistence. Give them six months in my computer room and they'll build up their immune system.

  • Uh... (Score:2, Funny)

    by NekoIncardine ( 838965 )
    Did anyone other than me think the (US's) Entertainment Software Association rather than the European Space Administration (name right?) when they first read this article? The Venus Mission... Sounds kinky when you're thinking games.
    • No, but I did think European Space Administration when I read the article on the Entertainment Software Association.
  • A monstrously large bulge seems to have formed on the surface of Mars, largely consisting of Martian male strippers in pyramid fashion.
    • An explanation of Mount Mons? Mars, as a planet, got a little excited over seeing Venus' 'dark side' and has been lusting after her ever since... a few billion years and he still hasn't even said Hi. He's hopeless, just like the rest of us.

  • The contaminent has been put through a battery of tests and after careful analysis , it was determined to be a double shot decaf latte from Starbucks.
  • Composed chiefly of carbon dioxide, Venus' atmosphere generates intense greenhouse warming, whereby trapped solar radiation heats the surface of the planet to an average of temperature of 467C.
    Of course, this is a purely natural phenomenon, so no Venusian needs to give up his SUV!

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