Planet C, from Jaxa, next to Venus.
Fifteen years after its launch, Japan announced the end of the “Planet C” mission, thus leaving humanity without any operational presence in Venus orbit, the planet’s brother of the Earth.
The Japan Aerospace Agency (Jaxa) launched the probe, also known as “Akatsuki” or Venus Climate Orbiter in May 2010. The mission faced difficulties in the early moments, recalls the.
As you approach Venus in December of the same year, the probe should slow down with a controlled burning of the main engine to get into orbit. However, due to engine malfunction, the expected 12 -minute burning lasted only three, and the probe passed beyond the target.
But Jaxa was able to use the auxiliary trajectory control system to adjust the probe orbit around the sun. Five years later, in 2015, the agency announced that the probe had finally been placed in venus orbit, allowing the start of scientific operations. At this point, Akatsuki orbit the planet in an elliptical orbit, with a minimum altitude of about 400 km and a maximum of 440,000 km, completing a lap within 13 days and 14 hours.
Although not in the initially planned orbit, the trajectory turned out to be advantageous for the planet’s observation. The probe began to send images and data that helped study the planet’s atmosphere, including cloud observation, lightning detection, and analysis of the atmosphere’s vertical structure. Equatorial elongated orbit allowed to systematically and continuously monitor the planet’s atmospheric dynamics.
Over the years, Akatsuki has faced some problems, such as the shutdown of two of the five cameras in 2016, but managed to continue operations. But recently, Jaxa lost contact with the probe. After attempts to restore communication, the agency decided to officially end the mission, considering the advanced age of the probe and the end of its projected operational life.
For more than eight years of continuous observation, Akatsuki has brought important scientific contributions, such as the discovery of the largest stationary wave of gravity in the solar system, the understanding of the atmospheric super rotation of Venus and the application of data assimilation techniques used in earthly meteorology.
Although humanity is temporarily without probes in Venus, new missions are planned. NASA expects to send the Davinci missions, Veritas and, together with ESA, Envision, between the late 2020s and early 2030s.
