Exploring the Venus Greenhouse / ESA TV Exchanges / 14-10-2005

The next transmission of the ESA TV Service will be:

14-Oct-05 09:15 – 09:30 GMT

Exploring the Venus Greenhouse

ESA TV Exchanges

Background information on the transmission:

Replay 1: 14 October 15:00-15:15 GMT

Replay 2: 15 October, 10:30-10:45 GMT

Venus Express will be studying the dynamics and chemistry of the atmosphere of our nearest planetary neighbour. We know from American and Russian space probes what ground observations had suspected since decades: Venus has a crushingly dense atmosphere, with hurricane-force winds driving layers of thick clouds, obscuring an inferno of up to 450 dgrees Celsius at the surface.

Interestingly, the focus of past missions to Venus was on this surface and its features. ESA’s Venus Express will study the atmosphere, how energy is stored in it, and radiated around this still very mysterious planet.

Today’s transmission looks at how Venus Express will achieve this objective. It includes soundbites with leading planetary scientists, among them Jacques Blamont from France, who was back in the 1980s a pioneer of studying the atmospheric dynamics of our morning star, using inflatable balloons flown onboard the Russian Venera missions.

The script is online as a PDF file under http://television.esa.int/photos/41811.pdf

A pre-view video clip can be downloaded from

http://esatv-movies.e-vision.nl/videos/mplo/VEX_atmo_12102005_wmplow.wmv (Media Player, 3.6 MB) or

http://esatv-movies.e-vision.nl/videos/mp4/VEX_atmo_12102005_mpg4.mov (Quicktime 14.4 MB)

This ESA TV Exchanges feed is transmitted by the European Commission’s “Europe by Satellite” (EbS) service. You can find the complete transmission schedule and download scripts and shot lists, also for ESA TV items, from the EbS Web site at http://europa.eu.int/comm/ebs/schedule.cfm

More background information can be found on http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=64.

Transmission details:EUTELSAT HOT BIRD at 13° East (DVB/MPEG-2)

Horizontal, F=12,476 MHz (MCPC, Europe by Satellite)

SR=27,500 MS/sec, FEC=3/4

For further information, visit our website at http://television.esa.int. For other enquires, contact Claus Habfast, Tel +31 71 565 3838, Fax +31 71 565 6340, e-mail claus.habfast@esa.int.