M5+-+5

= Mariner: = = =
 * Category 5 – Mars/Venus **
 * Mars Global Surveyor || JPL Past ||
 * Mars Pathfinder || JPL Past ||
 * Mars Exploration Rovers || JPL & NASA Current ||
 * Mariner || JPL Past ||
 * Magellan || JPL Past ||
 * Mars Odyssey || JPL Current ||
 * Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter || JPL Current ||
 * Phoenix || JPL & NASA Current ||
 * Mars Express || NASA Current ||
 * The Mariner series of missions were designed to be the first U.S. spacecraft to other planets, specifically Venus and Mars.
 * Mariner 1 and 2 were nearly identical spacecraft developed to fly by Venus
 * The rocket carrying Mariner 1 went off-course during launch on July 22, 1962, and was blown up by a range safety officer about 5 minutes into flight.
 * A month later, Mariner 2 was launched successfully on August 27, 1962, sending it on a 3-1/2-month flight to Venus
 * On the way it measured for the first time the solar wind, a constant stream of charged particles flowing outward from the Sun.
 * It also measured interplanetary dust, which turned out to be more scarce than predicted.
 * In addition, Mariner 2 detected high-energy charged particles coming from the Sun, including several brief solar flares, as well as cosmic rays from outside the solar system.

__Fact One:__ Venus and [|Mercury] are the only two planets in the [|Solar System] not to have moons orbiting them. __Fact Two:__ If we were able to stand on the surface of Venus, it would feel like being 1 kilometre under the sea on [|Earth], a depth deep enough to sink a submarine. A person or a creature would immediately be crushed by Venus' amazingly strong pressure. __Fact Three:__ Venus may have such a thick atmosphere because it spins so slowly. In fact, a year on Venus is shorter than its day. It takes the planet longer to turn on its axis than it takes it to orbit the [|Sun]. The slow rotation means that atmosphere does not have a force to spin off into space. __Fact Four:__ Venus is the only planet in the [|Solar System] to turn clockwise. All other planets turn anti-clockwise. It rotates clockwise on its axis extremely slowly, suggesting that something might have once collided with it to disrupt its regular rotation. __Fact Five:__ People once believed Venus to be two different stars known as the Morning Star and the Evening Star, because it can be seen in the morning and the evening. __Fact Six:__ After the [|Sun] and the [|Moon], Venus is the brightest object in the night-sky from [|Earth] __Fact Seven:__ The Americans have only ever landed one probe on Venus. This was [|Pioneer Venus 2], launched on 8th August 1978 which was to probe the planet's atmosphere, not examine its surface. All other landings on Venus were made by the Russians. There are no plans for missions to return to Venus in the near future. __Fact Eight:__ Venus' axis hardly has any tilt at all, unlike [|Mars] and [|Earth]. This means that, if it had a thin atmosphere, the planet would not have seasons. __Fact Nine:__ There are more [|volcanoes] on Venus than on any other planet in the [|Solar System], although it is not yet known whether any of these [|volcanoes] are still active. __Fact Ten:__ Venus may now resemble what [|Earth] will become in millions of years time, when the [|Sun] expands, heats the [|Earth], turning all of its surface water into a vapour which will trap sunlight and heat in its atmosphere, causing [|suffocating conditions] like those on Venus.

There are iron-rich minerals in its soil The Mariner series of missions were designed to be the first U.S. spacecraft to other planets, specifically Venus and Mars.

RIGHT-CLICK on these links to "Open in a new window" JPL PAST Missions http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/past_missions.cfm JPL CURRENT Missions http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/index.cfm NASA PAST Missions http://www.nasa.gov/missions/past/index.html NASA CURRENT Missions http://www.nasa.gov/missions/current/index.html>