| planet's atmosphere to
slow or steer a spacecraft. The
spacecraft made a dramatic plunge into
the thick, hot Venusian atmosphere on
October 12, 1994, and was crushed by the
pressure of Venus's atmosphere.
Magellan's signal was lost at 10:02
Universal Time (3:02 a.m. Pacific
Daylight Time) that day. .....The Magellan
mission was divided up into "cycles"
with each cycle lasting 243 days (the
time necessary for Venus to rotate once
under the Magellan orbit). The mission
proceeded as follows:
04 May 1989 - Launch
10 Aug 1990 - Venus orbit insertion and
spacecraft checkout
15 Sep 1990 - Cycle 1: Radar mapping (left-looking)
15 May 1991 - Cycle 2: Radar mapping (right-looking)
15 Jan 1992 - Cycle 3: Radar mapping (left-looking)
14 Sep 1992 - Cycle 4: Gravity data
acquisition
|
