A UK-designed spacecraft is set to make the first flyby of Venus as it heads on the Sun in a mission to decode the mysteries of the neighboring planet. The spacecraft is expected to enter a tilt under the influence of the sun’s gravitational force as it will face Venus to make observations that will help scientists learn more about the planet. The perihelion of the Sun Orbiter to the sun will take place on December 27, at around 12:39 UTC (13:39 CET) in the middle of the holiday season, according to ESA. The spacecraft will fly about 7,500 km from the top of the Venus clouds.
In an official statement, the ESA said that spacecraft activity managers will be keeping a close eye on flyby 2025 onwards, with the closest events to just a few hundred kilometers away from the planet. During the recently planned event around the time of the festival, several in-situ science instruments such as MAG, RPW and some EPD sensors will be activated to control the magnetic, plasma and particle environment around the vessel. capture a spaceship as it gets closer to the Venus.
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Spacecraft 235 million km from Earth
“To get it right for the flyby, experts from ESA ground stations and flight dynamics teams conducted a ‘Delta-DOR’ campaign, using an advanced technique – Delta-Differential One-Way Ranging – to find out exactly the spacecraft’s position in space and its orbit, ”the European Space Agency said in a news release. She also said a set of Delta-DOR equipment would be installed on Earth to receive the spacecraft’s radio signals, which will also monitor its whereabouts. “The Delta-DOR device allows operators to determine the location of a spacecraft within a few hundred meters, even at a distance of 100 million km,” the group said.
On December 17, the UK-designed spacecraft was spotted nearly 235 million kilometers from Earth, and about 10.5 million from Venus. Scientists thought it took about 13 minutes for the signals to travel to (or from) the spacecraft. According to scientists, the solar orbiter is ‘in harmony’ with Venus, which means that the spacecraft will be close to the planet every few orbits. The next meeting is expected to take place in August 2021.
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