Lipscomb, Nita (2012) Past individual space exploration missions. University Publications, Delhi, India. ISBN 9788132336433
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Abstract
The Magellan spacecraft was an American space probe sent to the planet Venus, the first unmanned interplanetary spacecraft to be launched by NASA since its successful Pioneer Orbiter, also to Venus, in 1978. It was also the first of three deep-space probes to be launched on the Space Shuttle (the others being the Ulysses Sun probe and the Galileo spacecraft to Jupiter) until the launching of the failed Mars Observer spacecraft on a Titan III rocket in 1992, and the first spacecraft to employ aerobraking techniques to circularize its orbit, a technique used on the current series of orbiters around Mars that allows fuel to be conserved. Magellan created the first (and currently the best) near-photographic quality, high resolution radar mapping of the planet's surface features, Prior Venus missions had created low resolution radar globes of general, continent-sized formations. Magellan, however, finally allowed detailed imaging and analysis of craters, hills, ridges, and other geologic formations, to a degree comparable to the visible-light photographic mapping of other planets. Magellan's global radar map will remain the most detailed Venus map in existence for the foreseeable future, although the planned Russian Venera-D may carry a radar that can achieve the same, if not better resolution as the radar used by Magellan.
| Item Type: | Book |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | T Technology > TL Motor vehicles. Aeronautics. Astronautics |
| Divisions: | Electronic Books |
| Depositing User: | Esam @ Hisham Muhammad |
| Date Deposited: | 22 Nov 2022 08:58 |
| Last Modified: | 22 Nov 2022 08:58 |
| URI: | http://odlsystem2.utm.my/id/eprint/3634 |
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