
Every Space Mission Ever Flown On One Map - kirk21
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/10/every-space-mission-ever-flown-on-one-map/
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ilamont
I was surprised to see Venus (43) is on a par with Mars (40, although there
have been several missions since 2009) and far more than the number of
missions to the Sun (9).

I assume Venus is easier to send missions to than the Sun or Mars, but the
relatively large number of missions seems strange considering the planet's
atmosphere, which is not friendly to spacecraft or photography and
instrumentation based on visible light. (Or maybe that's why there have been
so many missions, to lift the veil ...)

Does anyone have any insights into why Venus has been such a popular mission
destination?

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stargazer-3
Why shouldn't it be? Except for the question of the presence of life Venus is
a much more exciting planet to study, with thick atmosphere with high-speed
winds and it's shrouded surface. It might be suitable for human colonization
too — at 50 km altitude the gravity, pressure and temperature are almost the
same as on Earth. Also, most of the missions were Soviet, so it might be that
USSR wanted to secure the lead in Venus exploration.

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deletes
At current technology level Mars seems an easier option. The problem with
Venus is an atmosphere containing sulfuric acid and winds reaching 300 km/h,
where failure results in a descent to an approximation of hell.

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summerdown2
I went to a lecture a while ago by Geoffrey Landis, one of the people behind
the moon lander. He suggested that Venus was actually easier than Mars if you
imagine a floating capsule a kilometer above the surface. The atmosphere at
that level is room temperature, and the pressure is about 1 bar. The only
problem is sulfuric acid, and as he put it, "space has lots of things more
deadly than sulfuric acid, which is something we've had a lot of experience
dealing with."

Imagine springing a leak on Mars. You'd be rushing to fix it before everyone
dies. In the Venusian clouds, the pressure would be the same, inside and out,
and you'd simply patch it then clean up the mess.

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deletes
Real life Bespin does sound tempting.

I don't see how a leak in Venus differs much from one on Mars. A leak won't
immediately exhaust the air, in the worst case( neglecting explosion, and a
leak is always confined with sections( as in would be in Venus ) ) you will
get a few minutes to get into a suit and repair the problem. On the other hand
sulfuric acid is nasty, breathing it causes long term problems. And what
happens to equipment when the acid gets inside, while you are repairing, where
there isn't a plastic/ceramic shield. For external repair you will definitely
also require a full body specialized suit.

But let's say we would have guaranteed protection against it. What do you do
with 300+km/h winds? I'm sure there is turbulence and gusts that would wreck
the blimp.

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CanSpice
Every space mission as of 2009. There have been a few since then.

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runako
The post is from 2009.

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BrandonMarc
Have you ever seen an updated one? This is the first such "map" I've seen ...
I like it, dated or not.

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yetanotherphd
I would rather see to-scale diagrams of a single space mission. Does anyone
know of any?

This is part of a larger desire of mine that data given to the public is more
"real" and less "pedagogical". Not a criticism of the current article, clearly
they are focusing one something different.

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747facts
[http://www.braeunig.us/apollo/apollo11-TLI.htm](http://www.braeunig.us/apollo/apollo11-TLI.htm)

Not exactly complete, but an interesting look at how they avoided the Van
Allen belts.

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yetanotherphd
awesome, thanks a lot. It looks so much more amazing when you see how big the
distance from Earth to Moon is.

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micampe
Oh god, Onswipe again. Has anyone who puts it on their website tried to use it
from a phone or tablet?

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ykl
As cool as this map is, I eagerly await the day where we launch so many
missions so often that they can't possible fit on a single map.

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mturmon
If it makes you feel better, the Earth missions are not shown. There are a
lot.

Also, they seem to have left out missions that end in the Lagrange points. L1
is about 1% of the way to the Sun, and SoHO (for one) went there in 1996 and
is still operating there. L2 is 1% in the opposite direction, and WMAP and
Planck are/were there in 2009 when that map was made.

Finally, I think Stereo A and B may not be not there either; they trail/lead
the Earth in its orbit; now they are almost on the opposite side of the Sun
compared to Earth ([http://stereo-
ssc.nascom.nasa.gov/where.shtml](http://stereo-
ssc.nascom.nasa.gov/where.shtml)).

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TeMPOraL
This poster could use a timestamp. As other commenter mentioned, this map is
from 2009 [0], but even not minding that, if I were ever to print it and put
in on a wall, the date would be relevant to anyone who looked at it.

[0] -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6957391](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6957391)

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furyg3
It's amazing to me how little we must know about Uranus and Neptune...

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monsterix
It will be very interesting to see how and when this outreach will turn into a
show of territorial solidarity. It _will_ happen sooner or later! In fact,
looking at the rate at which they are now discovering exoplanets, and probably
will soon find some intelligent life too, I am curious how this outreach would
become the zone that is under the protection or stewardship of planet earth.
Or someone else's if that be the case.

