Current status of the PLANET-C Venus orbiter design Original Research Article

The ISAS (Institute of Space and Astronautical Science) working group is currently studying the feasibility of a Venus orbiter mission [Proposal Report of feasibility study of Venus Climate Orbiter (in Japanese), ISAS working group, 2001], called PLANET-C project, in which a 3 axis stabilized spacecraft will be launched in early 2008, and it will arrive at Venus in 2009. Primary purpose of the mission is to observe Venus climate so as to understand mechanism of the global circulation and three-dimensional motion of the Venus atmosphere in the lower stratum. In order to achieve the above scientific objectives, the spacecraft will carry several types of optical cameras mainly with near-infrared wavelengths. An accurate orientation for the attitude control is required in the spacecraft design. Furthermore, thermal control of the cameras is critical, because of large heat input from camera hoods and strict requirement of low temperature of detecting head. This paper describes characteristics of the PLANET-C spacecraft. And also depicted are the mission outline and the operation plan of the attitude orientation.