ConCen

http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamcrowe/4...6/sizes/o/

Original Source - National Geographic
http://books.nationalgeographic.com/map/map-day/index

Digg Discussion
http://digg.com/general_sciences/Every_Spa..._Years_on_1_map

Okay so these are the publicly disclosed visits.

We've been indoctrinated to believe that Mars is the planet where stuff might have went down (or is of significant interest), in being the biggest curiosity of exploration. 43 Missions including 10 "failed" missions.

All this focus on Mars, water, martians, pyramids, google maps, rovers, all sorts of fiction on the planet.

Add it all up and it almost seems that be downplaying Venus getting us to look at another rock. Something must be interesting there to keep them going back.

From what I read about Venus as a child it was super hot and there was constant electric activity so nothing could penetrate the atmosphere for good surface readings. No life could possibly survive there but Earth life has proved that incorrect as we have evidence of life taking form in the harshest environments.

It's not just life but resources, natural anomalies and maybe architecture.

I'm going to dig up a bit more for a second look.

Cool man, am looking forward to having a read. Are there any public reasons you have come across for so many missions, other than the name 'Earth's Twin' due to it's size?

It does seem that, of what is written about the surface of Venus, speculation is the most predominant recurring feature.

(08-19-2011 08:23 PM)FastTadpole Wrote: [ -> ]From what I read about Venus as a child it was super hot and there was constant electric activity so nothing could penetrate the atmosphere for good surface readings.

The Russians landed their lander "Venera" and took a picture or two before the 80 atmospheres pressure and 450 degrees C proved too much for it. A wonderful technical achievement.
Since then it has been comprehensively mapped by radar.

Quote:No life could possibly survive there but Earth life has proved that incorrect as we have evidence of life taking form in the harshest environments.

The harshest WATERY environments.
It's hard to envisage ANY form of Life which could possibly originate without WATER for a transporting solvent medium, and without CARBON to provide a huge range of chemical compounds to operate in this solvent.
I sometimes wonder if a stable electromagnetic form of life could exist within stars, but the movements within them seem predictable and sterile.

Publicly released photos by NASA
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/imgcat/thumbn...nails.html

NASA Venus Exploration Timeline
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/chr...venus.html

NASA Venus Page
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/pla...spage.html

NASA have taken a lot of the data offline:

Quote:The NSSDC no longer supports the Multimedia Catalog.

Further questions about data availability and ordering can be directed to the NSSDC Coordinated Request and User Support Office (CRUSO).

Note: Due to recent budget cuts, NSSDC is no longer able to fill some large requests. Credit cards will not be charged nor checks or money orders processed until your order has been reviewed and accepted.

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/catalog/

There is water on Venus although there is very little. No life is known to exist without water. There may have been more water in the past, but that's speculative. Venus could be an inhabitable planet in progress, maybe it was or maybe neither.

Quote:Astronomers have detected that the atmosphere of Venus consists of 0.002% water vapor. Compare that to the Earth’s atmosphere, which contains 0.40% water vapor.

http://www.universetoday.com/36291/is-th...-on-venus/

That may indicate that Venus has 0.5% the amount of water as that on Earth but with the temperature readings, if disproportionate amount would be in the atmosphere.

If it was than we could longshot speculate there is some sort of remnants of life or even (longer shot) civilization.

The most documented Russian Venera flights JazzRoc referred to would likely be these.
Venera 15 - 2 June 1983 - Venus Orbiter
Venera 16 - 7 June 1983 - Venus Orbiter

They both focused their survey efforts on the north pole of Venus using radar mapping.

Really there isn't enough data to say one way or another. All the data is available on order but some is missing (sets 8 & 9 out of 27 total) from the compilation noting that it wasn't available in time for the CD archive.

Also a lot of the missions ended up failing to transmit data, likely due to harsh conditions (temperature, pressure..) as NASA stated, if we take their word for it - that said you think there would be whistleblowers or suicides if there was a cover-up.

Still it is interesting so many probes were sent to Venus and we rarely hear talk of it in comparison to Mars but hey Mars has a good supply of water on it and far more data is available.

I'll passively investigate this further, any other contributions would be welcome and appreciated as always.

(08-22-2011 10:55 PM)FastTadpole Wrote: [ -> ]There may have been more water in the past, but that's speculative.

Not really.
The whole Solar System was made out of the same mixture of rubble, ice, and gas. Comets still are that mixture, so assaying a heavy comet (which has been done a few times now) will give a fairly accurate picture of the system's starting constituents.
Volatiles are blown away from the system's center by the Sun, with ever-decreasing force as the distance increases, and after 4bn years the outer system presently has the greater preponderance of ice and gas, as you might expect.
It isn't speculative. It's science.

Quote:Venus could be an inhabitable planet in progress, maybe it was or maybe neither.

It would have started with slightly MORE Hadean conditions (more bombardment, more solar radiation) than the Earth, which is similar in size. I suspect that its surface temperature never fell to the point where water condensed out of the atmosphere to form seas BEFORE the solar wind had blown away the water vapor. Is that speculation?
Without this moderation, all available carbon and sulfur became fixed (over a considerable time) in a rich and dense oxidizing atmosphere which retains heat by reradiation.
Much of Venus's surface is in motion like the moon Io. Lava...

One is as likely to inhabit Venus as one is an active volcanic crater on Earth, with the added bonus of a crushing pressurized furnace sulfuric acid atmosphere. A pressure crematorium of heat and acid.

Quote:If it was than we could longshot speculate there is some sort of remnants of life or even (longer shot) civilization.

Nope.
The Earth is a molten blob with an unusually-large nickel/iron plasma magnet for a center, and a 50-mile crust of something solid above that.
Venus hardly has a crust at all, and has a similar center but half the mass of the Earth's. Its surface turns over many times faster than Earth's does. It has no plate tectonics. No evidence could possibly remain.
Its orbit is remarkably circular, evidence of its liquid properties which have damped out ellipsis and eccentricity from its orbit over the aeons.

great answer jazz, it's true the surface is molten and with no tectonic plates for the past 500,000 years or more no pyramids will be found (or any structures) unlike for those relics still found on our moon and mars and I've heard online speculation about on one of Saturn's moons.

History is Venus's curiosity, but it was abandoned first as uninhabitable, and according to one "passed down legend" it was known the planet's fate was to come to pass and the peoples who dwelled there moved on b4 it's total demise, some to here, some to mars.

course mars also is closer to where anything entering our system might stop to fuel/ repair after the remains of tiamat (asteroid belt), and with it's much more solid surface plenty of "architecture" can still be seen.

Aside from life and civilization we could look to the motives of human curiosity, scientific status and resources or the study of atmospheric/geological phenomena on the planet. For energy research (there is a lot of activity on the planet producing a lot of reaction), to study terraforming or something else that could be harnessed or replicated, maybe it is just a good medium (high pressure) for something I can't fathom.

Breaking down the studies it seems that NASA and Russia just got to the survey point. Japan (ISAS) recently engaged in a failed mission but there are set to give it another go. It was/is meant to compliment the 2005 ESA effort.

From the rhetoric surrounding the planet it is to better present the climate change disaster scenario and funnel some money.

Quote:Venus is sometimes referred to as Earth's sister planet because of its similarity to the Earth in size and mass, but its climate is very different. Venus has a massive CO2 atmosphere which is extremely hot due to the greenhouse effect and is covered by sulfuric acid clouds.

/tangent
It is called AKATSUKI (meaning dawn or daybreak), Japanese culture considers dawn as a time of great movement, and is associated with natural power. It is interesting that in their most popular manga anime (Naruto Shiippuden) and longest running program at the time AKATSUKI is the evil antagonist group set on a new global order of peace by way of a great war that's final goal will consolidate demonic power from people and use it to take their free will by using the power of the demons combined with nature. In particular the master plan of the head of the AKATSUKI the moon will turn into a giant hypnotic eyeball.

[attachment=4082]
/tangent

(08-24-2011 02:01 AM)Deathaniel Wrote: [ -> ]the peoples who dwelled there moved on b4 it's total demise, some to here, some to mars.

You can't beat human imagination.

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(08-24-2011 02:29 AM)FastTadpole Wrote: [ -> ]it is to better present the climate change disaster scenario and funnel some money.

Except when you can.
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A mind-boggling infographic of all the missions from Earth to Mars, and where they wound up

[attachment=4158]

Source: http://io9.com/5855793/a-mind+boggling-i...y-wound-up
Credit: Brian Crystie Design 2009

Quote:50 Years of Space Exploration Mapped; Why all the Missions to Venus?

That's easy. To find out why women are so crazy.

I didn't want to burst any bubbles and state that most (if not all) of the early missions were to figure out the atmospheric composition and get some cool pictures. Engineers had to implement, from what I recall, trial and error to keep their equipment from being crushed by the pressure, baked by the heat, and eaten away by the atmosphere for long enough to get some readings.

So I won't mention anything about it.