Magellan mapping Venus.Magellan mapping Venus The Magellan spacecraft started mapping the surface of Venus with radar on Sept. 15, about two weeks later than planned. But the mission, due to last 243 days -- or the time it takes Venus to make one rotation about its axis -- got off to a shaky start when Magellan's communications with Earth twice mysteriously shut down. Since reaching Venus on Aug. 10, Magellan has settled into a stable orbit, now circling the planet every 3.26 hours. It gathers mapping data about eight hours a day. When it's not bouncing radar signals off Venus' surface, the craft turns toward Earth to play back its cartographic car·tog·ra·phy n. The art or technique of making maps or charts. [French cartographie : carte, map (from Old French, from Latin charta, carta, paper made from papyrus measurements and provide engineering data about the state of its health. During a shakedown phase -- prior to the craft's beginning full-time mapping -- project officials played back to Earch some preliminary radar images and engineering data stores on Magellan's two tape recorders tape recorder, device for recording information on strips of plastic tape (usually polyester) that are coated with fine particles of a magnetic substance, usually an oxide of iron, cobalt, or chromium. The coating is normally held on the tape with a special binder. . Researchers are now combing through this complete "data dump" looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. clues to why the craft subsequently twice fell mute. The craft inexplicably in·ex·pli·ca·ble adj. Difficult or impossible to explain or account for. in·ex  pli·ca·bil lost contact with Earth for nearly 15 hours on Aug. 16 and again for 17 hours on Aug. 21. With the radar-mapping images starting to emerge, Magellan officials say the mapping is "going well." They acknowledge, however, that they still do not know what caused the two communications problems, and that they cannot rule out another signal loss. Ultimately, Magellan scientists The Magellan project was set up so that the initial images and data from the Magellan probe were only for use and study by a team of principal investigators from a variety of universities and institutions, and by the Magellan Project Science Team. hope to complete five radar scans of the entire planet -- each time from a slightly different angle. Their goal is to collect enough data to eventually construct three-dimensional stereographic ster·e·og·ra·phy n. 1. The art or technique of depicting solid bodies on a plane surface. 2. Photography that involves the use of stereoscopic equipment. images of the Venusian surface. |
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