by Subjectivist » Tue 03 Feb 2015, 09:15:34
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', 'W')ell ESA has announced Venus Express ran out of fuel mid way through the orbit raising burns in November.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he mission then continued in a reduced science phase, as the closest
approach of the spacecraft to Venus steadily decreased again naturally
under gravity.
Under the assumption that there was some propellant still remaining, a
decision was taken to correct this natural decay with a new series of
raising manoeuvres during 23-30 November, in an attempt to prolong the
mission into 2015.
However, full contact with Venus Express was lost on 28 November. Since
then the telemetry and telecommand links had been partially re-established,
but they were very unstable and only limited information could be retrieved.
Without propellant, however, it is no longer possible to control the attitude
and orient Venus Express towards Earth to maintain communications. It
is also impossible to raise the altitude further, meaning that the spacecraft
will naturally sink deeper into the atmosphere over the coming weeks.
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space ... _the_night Gens Express has entered the atmosphere and any components that survived are strew across the surface below.
http://www.astrowatch.net/2015/02/rip-v ... eight.html$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')fter eight years in orbit and with propellant for its propulsion system running low, Venus Express was tasked in mid-2014 with a daring aerobraking campaign, during which it dipped progressively lower into the atmosphere on its closest approaches to the planet.
“This mission was essentially run flawlessly throughout its lifetime, and the only thing serious that happened to it was the lack of propellant to complete the raising of the orbit in November 2014, which led to the end of mission operations,” Martin said. “With just a little more fuel, the mission could obviously have gone further in 2015, but having been able to perform the aerobraking last Summer was really the ‘cherry on the cake’ for this mission.”
Svedhem admits that at a certain point and after doing some aerodrag experiments, the mission team was confronted with the possibility to do aerobraking operations to lower the orbit apocenter and thus reduce the effect of the sun which required frequent, highly consuming propellant maneuvers. It was finally decided to leave it as an experiment towards the end of the mission since the spacecraft was not fully designed to withstand the high temperatures caused by the friction with the atmosphere.
“The opportunity came finally in 2014 when the propellant estimation was predicting the end of its life. The aerobraking experiment provided not only a unique opportunity to explore the unknown atmosphere and altitude around 130 km but a European premiere to do aerobraking at a planet different from Earth,” Svedhem said.
Venus Express aerobraking operations were successfully executed from June 18 to July 11, 2014. After some internal discussions, the mission team and the ESA management had to make the choice between leaving the spacecraft go into the atmosphere or make a last maneuver attempt to raise the percenter with the propellant left and get a final bonus of science towards the end of 2014.
The spacecraft ran out of propellant and went to safe mode on Nov. 27. From that moment, it managed to get enough energy from the Sun to show that it was alive by sending a signal that has been detected by ESA and NASA ground stations. The last signal was detected on 18 January 2015. “We believe that the spacecraft is just about to enter into the atmosphere like a hero, holding its last breath down through its final atmosphere crossing,” Svedhem remarked.
Two weeks with no signal is pretty solid evidence she has gone where no human ever has, at least not yet.