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The Magellan Venus Probe. Frank Koconis. Contents. Venus compared to Earth Earlier exploration of Venus The problem: How to map the surface The Magellan Mission Working at JPL. Venus Compared to Earth. Earlier Exploration of Venus. From Earth, all we see is the clouds ->.
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The Magellan Venus Probe Frank Koconis
Contents • Venus compared to Earth • Earlier exploration of Venus • The problem: How to map the surface • The Magellan Mission • Working at JPL
Earlier Exploration of Venus From Earth, all we see is the clouds ->
Earlier Exploration of Venus (cont.) So we have sent many unmanned probes there
Earlier Exploration of Venus (cont.) …more than to any other planet
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
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
The Magellan Mission- Results • Goal was to map 70% of surface, to 100m resolution • Actually mapped 98%!
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
JPL: Deep-Space Network Three sites: California, Australian and Spain
JPL: Museum Pioneer 1 Explorer 1 Ranger 7
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
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/