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Update to Strategy for Exploration of the Inner Planets (1990) / Chapter Skim
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4 Venus
Pages 11-15

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 11...
... The Magellan mission should provide resolution sufficient to characterize the cratering history and to search for a possible relic crater population prior to climatic instability. The mission should also test hypotheses about the timing, style, and rate of surface modification processes including erosion, possible fossil river beds, volcanic resurfacing, and perhaps plate tectonics.
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From page 12...
... SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVES Measurements from Pioneer Venus, Venera; VEGA, and ground-based investigations have provided a quantitative data base but have also raised fundamental issues concerning the planet's interior, surface, and atmosphere that demand further study. Determination of the interior structure is a primary objective for future exploration following successful completion of the Magellan mission.
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From page 13...
... While Magellan may provide global topographic and gravity data, higher-resolution data on particular locations will be necessary to understand the interior dynamics and surface tectonic processes responsible for certain geological features. Should Magellan fail to collect the expected global topography and extensive gravity data, the acquisition of this information would remain a high-priority science objective.
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From page 14...
... UPDATED RECOMMENDATIONS Essentially all of the strategy developed for Venus in the 1978 report remains valid. That report presumed that the Pioneer Venus and Venera investigations of the middle and lower atmosphere would completely determine its basic structure, dynamics, and chemical composition: The 1978 strategy therefore emphasized complementary investigations.
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From page 15...
... The 1978 report also considered study of the Venusian interior using passive or active seismic techniques as a secondary objective, while noting that it would be a primary objective if it appeared feasible. At that time, acquisition of such data required new technology development of instrumentation able to function for long durations at the surface temperatures.
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Key Terms

  • space studies
  • surface temperatures
  • venus atmosphere
  • gravity data
  • seismic data

  • internal structure
  • fundamental issues
  • upper atmosphere
  • magnetic field
  • venus radar

  • venus data
  • array raises
  • measured include
  • venus orbiter
  • atmospheric composition

  • dynamics remain
  • lower atmospheric
  • supplied gravity
  • altitude profile
  • secondary objective

  • based radar
  • future exploration
  • venera descenders
  • instruments operating
  • global changes

  • involving photochemistry
  • interior using
  • internally generated
  • key quantities
  • serious study


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