1. The Magellan Venus Probe Frank Koconis

2. Contents Venus compared to Earth Earlier exploration of Venus The problem: How to map the surface The Magellan Mission Working at JPL

3. Venus Compared to Earth EarthVenus Diameter12,742 km12,104 km Distance from Sun150,000,000 km108,000,000 km “Day” (rotation period)1 day243 days Year365 days228 days Surface gravity1 G0.9 G Atmospheric compositionN 2 (77%), O 2 (21%), Ar (1%), C0 2 (0.4%) C0 2 (96%), N 2 (3%), traces of other gasses Atmospheric pressure1.092 Average surface temperature15° C (59° F)477° C (891° F)

4. Earlier Exploration of Venus From Earth, all we see is the clouds ->

5. Earlier Exploration of Venus (cont.) So we have sent many unmanned probes there NameYearSent ByNotes Mariner 21962USAFly-by at 34,745 km Venera 41967Russia (USSR)Entered atmosphere Mariner 51967USAFly-by at 4023 km Venera 51969Russia (USSR)Descended into atmosphere by parachute Venera 61969Russia (USSR)Descended into atmosphere by parachute Venera 71970Russia (USSR)Soft-landed on surface; survived 23 min. Venera 81972Russia (USSR)Soft-landed on surface Mariner 101973USAFly-by en-route to Mercury Venera 91975Russia (USSR)Soft-landed and transmitted pictures Venera 101975Russia (USSR)Landed; transmitted pictures for 65 min. Pioneer 121978USAOrbited and mapped surface using radar Pioneer 131978USAEntered atmosphere

6. Earlier Exploration of Venus (cont.) …more than to any other planet NameYearSent ByNotes Venera 111978Russia (USSR)Soft-landed Venera 121978Russia (USSR)Soft-landed but failed to return images Venera 131981Russia (USSR)Soft-landed and sent color images Venera 141981Russia (USSR)Drilled into soil and took seismic readings Venera 151983Russia (USSR)Orbiter; mapped surface using radar Venera 161983Russia (USSR)Orbiter; mapped surface using radar Vega 11984Russia (USSR)Dropped balloon probe en-route to Halley’s Vega 21984Russia (USSR)Dropped balloon probe en-route to Halley’s

7. The Surface of Venus (Venera 9)

8. The Problem: How to Map the Surface You can’t see through the clouds BUT- Radar can go through Using radar to map the topography of Venus – Earth-based radar: many attempts starting in the 1940’s – Pioneer 12: produced a map with about 100 km resolution – Venera 15 and 16: produced map with 2 km resolution – Magellan

9. The Magellan Mission Named after Ferdinand Magellan – Led first round-the-globe voyage (1519 – 1522) – Killed in a dispute between tribes in the Philippines, but one of his ships completed the trip Magellan mission to Venus – Developed by the Jet Propulsion Lab and Martin Marietta – Launched on May 4, 1989 – Reached Venus on August 7, 1990 – End of mission: October 13, 1994

10. The Magellan Mission- The Probe

11. The Magellan Mission- Launch

12. The Magellan Mission- Getting There

13. The Magellan Mission- Mapping Venus

14. The Magellan Mission- Polar Orbit

15. The Magellan Mission- Results Goal was to map 70% of surface, to 100m resolution Actually mapped 98%!

16. The Magellan Mission- Results

17. The Magellan Mission- Aphrodite Terra

18. The Magellan Mission- Maat Mons

19. The Magellan Mission- Addams Crater

20. The Magellan Mission- My Role On-board computer was called CDS (Command and Data Subsystem) – Much less powerful than a smartphone – Operated the probe with no assistance from Earth – New instructions sent once per week My role: testing the CDS (1984 – 1985) – CDS needed to detect and handle failures in spacecraft components – To test this, a rack of test computers was built, each acting as one component of the probe – Our team programmed these test computers

21. Working at JPL

22. JPL: The Campus

23. JPL: Spacecraft Assembly Facility

24. JPL: Deep-Space Network Three sites: California, Australian and Spain

25. JPL: Tracking Facility

26. JPL: Museum Ranger 7 Pioneer 1Explorer 1

27. Frank Koconis Education – Myers Park High School: Class of 1980 – Georgia Institute of Technology: Class of 1984 Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, with High Honors – University of NC at Charlotte: 1992 Master of Science in Computer Science Attended evening classes while working full time After JPL… – JPL was my first job after Georgia Tech – Since then, I have worked in many different industries including telecommunications, textiles, government, teaching, petroleum and banking – Currently working for Syncsort

28. Questions? Web Links http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magellan_%28spacecraft%29 http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/magellan/guide.html http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/venusfact.html http://www.astronomynotes.com/tables/tablesb.htm http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=34067 http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1989-033B http://yooperabroad.wordpress.com/2012/07/31/nasa-jet- propulsion-lab/