India to send rocket to Venus

[hab...@anony.net]

We could build cities in the dense cool clouds of Venus

excerpt asian age

A top French astrophysicist will be working with Isro team

Venus beckons India’s space scientists after their successful outing
to Mars, and if everything goes according to plan, a home-grown probe
should be cruising towards the brightest and hottest planet in the
solar system in about two-and-a-half years, in yet another shot at
understanding the evolution of the world.

This mission to Venus could have a French connection as Prof. Jacques
Blamont, a renowned astrophysicist and a friend of the late Dr Vikram
Sarabhai, who was awarded the Padma Shri this year, has offered to
help the Indian Space Research Organisation with gigantic balloons
carrying several instruments but designed to pop in and out of the
extremely hot atmosphere of the planet after being unfettered from the
orbiter.

“It is possible to build and launch the spacecraft in about
two-and-a-half years. Dr Adimurthy (who, incidentally, wrote the first
feasibility report on the Mars Orbiter Mission) and a big team at VSSC
(Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram) are working out all
the details like the ideal launch window, the best orbit for the
orbiter and the instruments to go on board,” Prof U.R. Rao, former
chairman of Isro and head of the space agency’s Advisory Committee for
Space Sciences, told this newspaper.

He said Isro could bank on its workhorse rocket, Polar Satellite
Launch Vehicle, which hurled Chandrayaan-I and MOM into space for its
outing to Venus as well.