Japan’s Venus probe mysteriously disappears

Disappearing

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Akatsuki space probe – which is the only ongoing mission to the planet Venus – may be at its limit.

On a update on XThe JAXA Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences said it lost contact with Akatsuki “after an operation in late April due to an extended period of low-attitude stability control mode.”

But it’s not a lost cause yet, and the institute is “currently making efforts to reestablish communication with the spacecraft.”

If the probe remains silent, however, its loss will mean humanity will be cut off from its only source of up-close observations of the strange, hellish planet.

Dual Connection

Officially known as the Venus Climate Orbiter (PLANET-C) mission, Akatsuki was launched by JAXA in 2010 and, after some errors, entered orbit around its destination planet in 2015.

Although its shape is modest – essentially a small box no more than five feet in each direction – the small, sturdy probe came packed with five cameras that it used to tirelessly image the Venusian atmosphere.

Their contributions have been invaluable to astronomers, especially considering that long missions to Venus are few and far between. Our most detailed images of its surface come from NASA’s Magellan probe from the early 1990s, to put things into perspective.

That’s it It’s not a very welcoming planet. The Venusian atmosphere is so thick with carbon dioxide that the pressures it creates can crush metal. Temperatures are high enough to melt some metals as well, often exceeding 800 degrees Fahrenheit. And, of course, there is its haze of corrosive clouds that make it extremely difficult to observe its surface. Even orbiting it could be dangerous.

But as hostile as the planet is to anything that comes near it, we can’t help but be fascinated by it. It is our planet’s ‘twin’, with similar size, mass and composition – and it is also right next door.

Greener Pastures

If the JAXA investigation cannot be recovered, it would not be an unexpected loss. Akatsuki has long outlived its originally designed lifespan of 4.5 years.

Now, nearly a decade of faithful service later, no one can blame the poor guy for asking for a late retirement.

Still, it will leave a big gap. NASA plans to launch two missions to Venus, DA VINCI It is Veritas, but they are not expected to take off until 2029 and 2031, respectively. We can only hope, then, that Akatsuki will remain until there is a worthy successor.

More about space: Astronomers are surprised to discover that the tiny moon is actually two tiny moons in one coat