First Row
How many months did the Magellan spacecraft spend orbiting the sun before reaching Venus?
The Magellan went on a 15 month journey around the sun before it arrived on Venus in August of 1990.
What happened to the Magellan Spacecraft at the end of the mission?
Magellans mission ended when it purposely plunged into the surface of Venus to collect data on the planet's atmosphere before it came apart. Even as it burned for ten hours straight, the Magellan was still collecting data.
What is the Magellan Spacecraft powered by?
pacecraft powered by?
The Magellan was powered by two square solar panels, which together provided 1,200 wats of power at the beginning of the mission
What causes Venus's surface to appear young/How old is the surface of Venus?
Scientists believe that Volcano eruptions resurfaced the planet, making the surface of Venus appear young. The surface of Venus is about 500 million years old.
What is the The Synthetic Aperture Radar ( SAR)
Imaging Radar
Name a difference between Venus and Earth
On earth, volcanoes are grouped together, but on Venus, volcanoes are distributed randomly.
Venus does not have an athsenopshere like Earth does.
the atmospheric pressure at the surface of Venus is 90 more times greater than Earth's.
Venus atmosphere bearly consists of water and is made up of 97% carbon dioxide
Venus has no moons, and no magnetic field.
What was the Magellan designed to use?
Imaging radar
What date was the Magellan launched and What date was the Magellan deployed?
May 4, 1989: Launch
May 5, 1989: Deployed from cargo bay of Space Shuttle Atlantis
What were the three achievements the Magellan spacecraft was first to complete?
The Magellan spacecraft was the first spacecraft to be launched by a space shuttle the first to image the entire surface of Venus, and the first operating spacecraft to be intentionally crashed
which one is the highest volcano on Venus, "Ozza mons" or "Maat mons”
"Maat mons”
What were the high gain antennas used for?
The high gain antennas were used for gravity field measurement, and radio signals
what was there no evidence of on Venus based on the radar images sent back to earth?
No proof of lakes or Oceans existing at any time in the planets past
No evidence of plate tectonics
No evidence of surface features eroded by water
how long are the lava channels on Venus?
These lava channels on Venus are thousands of kilometers long
what are impact Craters?
impact craters on Venus get formed when big meteoroids plummet through the planet's atmosphere and hit the ground.
How often does Venus rotate?
once every 243 earth days
What is an asthenosphere?
it is the upper layer of the earth's mantle.
What is needed to create the gravity map of Venus?
To create the gravity map of Venus, the people from Nasa had to track the spacecraft orbit precriecly.
What was the Star Scanner used for on the Magellan?
The star scanner was used to observe two stars in order to update the space crafts altitude knowledge
How does an imaging radar work. Be specific.
Megalens imaging radar used microwave radiation/energy, which are waves of electrical and magentic energy moving togther through space, to illumniate Venus’s surface.
What is the aerobraking Technique?
Using the planets atmosphere to circularize, track its orbit, and slow the spacecraft down
The spacecraft was built with spare parts from previous missions. Name the four other missions
The Magellan used spare parts from Voyager, Galileo, Ulysses, and Mariner 9.
What is the name of the impact crater mentioned in this presentation
Aurelia is the name of the impact crater on Venus mentioned in this presentation
What did flight controllers want to figure out during the Windmill Experiment?
Flight controllers wanted to figure out how much torque would be needed to keep the spacecraft from spinning.
Torque is the measure of a force that can cause an object to rotate.
Free point
Free point
How does the gravity on Venus closely reflect surface topology?
The gravity on Venus changes in a way that matches with its surface features. This means that on the areas of Venus with volcanoes, the gravity will be stronger there because it will be more massive than flat areas.