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Venus ahoy!

European probe arrives at our hellish planetary twin.

On 11 April, less than six months after launch, the European Space Agency's probe Venus Express arrived at its destination, swinging elegantly into orbit around the fiery hot planet. News@nature finds out why we have sent a probe to our hellish neighbour, and what's in store for the mission.

Read the Briefing here.

Posted by Nicola Jones on April 11, 2006 12:17 PM |

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So, basically, we had this spaceship and stuff lying around, so what the hell, let's send it to Venus. It's only money ($250 million? pfft, a pittance). Are we going to learn anything interesting or useful? Not likely.
This may not be bad science, but it's certainly bad economics, and considering that there were many, many potential uses for that $250 large, some of them scientific, it may be bad for science and for society.

Posted by: Ray Gossen | April 13, 2006 06:54 AM

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