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Japanese mission launch heralds new ‘dawn’ for Venus science

venus dawn.bmpJapan’s Venus mission Akatsuki successfully launched today from the Tanegashima Space Center.

After it gets into orbit around Venus the spacecraft, whose name means ‘dawn’, will monitor the planet’s atmosphere in an attempt to discover why a world so similar to Earth in many respects is so inhospitable. One of the conundrums it will try to resolve is why the planet’s atmosphere ‘super rotates’ at up to 60 times the speed of the surface (see: Japan prepares for Venus countdown).

“Although Venus is believed to have formed under similar conditions to Earth, it is a completely different world from our planet with extremely high temperatures due to the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide and a super rotating atmosphere blanketed by thick clouds of sulphuric acid," says Takeshi Imamura, one of the scientists working on Akatsuki (BBC). “Using [this mission] to investigate the atmosphere of Venus and comparing it with that of Earth, we hope to learn more about the factors determining planetary environments.”

It is hoped that Akatsuki will arrive at Venus in December, and operate for around four years after that.

“Akatsuki is the first ‘meteorological satellite’ of a planet other than the Earth,” says Seiichi Sakamoto, director for space science outreach at JAXA’s Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (Space.com). “Detailed study of Earth’s sister planet will provide us with breakthroughs in the field of atmospheric science.”

Japan’s space agency JAXA is also testing a new ‘space sail’ at the same time. Called Ikaros, the 14 square metre polyimide sail should be propelled by the impact of photons from the Sun.

Image: JAXA

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