space probes to/past Venus in last twenty years

Only one space mission visited Venus in
the past 20 years, by my count (T-shirt for
corrections), but a number of probes made
Venus-fly-bys on their way elesewhere --
does anybody have a complete list? I'm doing
a pre-flight piece on Venus-Express.

If you count December of 1994 as less than twenty years, then you can count
the Soviet Vega 1 and Vega 2 missions. Their primary target was Halley's
comet, but they did fly by Venus and drop off both landers and atmospheric
probes. The balloons each lasted for a couple of days, and one of the
landers made it down in working order.

Galileo did a fly by in 1989 on the way to Jupiter. I think it took some
snapshots.

Magellan was in orbit doing radar mapping from 1989 to 1994.

That's all I can think off.



"Jim Oberg" wrote in message
.. .
Only one space mission visited Venus in
the past 20 years, by my count (T-shirt for
corrections), but a number of probes made
Venus-fly-bys on their way elesewhere --
does anybody have a complete list? I'm doing
a pre-flight piece on Venus-Express.

Don't forget Cassini on its way to Saturn flew by Venus twice- 1998
April 26, and 1999 June 24.

Messenger is due to flyby Venus twice, also, but I need to check the
dates.

"Jim Oberg" wrote in message
.. .

Only one space mission visited Venus in
the past 20 years, by my count (T-shirt for
corrections), but a number of probes made
Venus-fly-bys on their way elesewhere --
does anybody have a complete list? I'm doing
a pre-flight piece on Venus-Express.




El Rey de los Chingones wrote:
If you count December of 1994 as less than twenty years, then you can count
the Soviet Vega 1 and Vega 2 missions. Their primary target was Halley's
comet, but they did fly by Venus and drop off both landers and atmospheric
probes. The balloons each lasted for a couple of days, and one of the
landers made it down in working order.

Galileo did a fly by in 1989 on the way to Jupiter. I think it took some
snapshots.

Magellan was in orbit doing radar mapping from 1989 to 1994.

That's all I can think off.


Plus Cassini - April 26, 1998.

Out of interest, I think the next Venus encounter is Venus Express April
2006. But that's not fair, because it's a dedicated Venus mission, very
unfashionable

I think the next gravity assist is Messenger in October 2006.

--

Fin

)

wrote:
Don't forget Cassini on its way to Saturn flew by Venus twice- 1998
April 26, and 1999 June 24.


Oops, forgot it did it twice...

What would we do for grav assists if there were just a Mars-sized planet
in Venus orbit?

Or maybe a Venus-sized planet in Mars orbit would turn out to be even
more handy? Can't do the maths, never mind...

--

Fin

)

Just checked the Messenger site. The first flyby of Venus (after one of
Earth this August) is scheduled for 2006 Oct 24, the second is 2007
June 5.

Just checked the Messenger site. The first flyby of Venus (after one of
Earth this August) is scheduled for 2006 Oct 24, the second is 2007
June 5.

On Tue, 05 Jul 2005 21:10:34 GMT, "Jim Oberg"
wrote:

Only one space mission visited Venus in
the past 20 years, by my count (T-shirt for
corrections)

....Brad Guth's numbers do not count in this case, natch.

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

On Tue, 05 Jul 2005 21:40:46 -0500, OM
om@our_blessed_lady_mary_of_the_holy_NASA_researc h_facility.org
wrote:

On Tue, 05 Jul 2005 21:10:34 GMT, "Jim Oberg"
wrote:

Only one space mission visited Venus in
the past 20 years, by my count (T-shirt for
corrections)

...Brad Guth's numbers do not count in this case, natch.

OM


Yea, you laugh now. Just wait. When we have robbed enough orbital
velocity from Venus with all these space probes, it will fall into the
Sun.

Or maybe that's Mars. I never can keep the pictures straight.

;-)


Rusty

Actually, Messenger is using ITS gravity-assist to SLOW DOWN, returning
some of the velocity we've used for other probes.

Nature ALWAYS balances her books- Arthur C. Clarke