"Fantastic" photolike test images from the Magellan probe indicate the hidden surface of Venus is wracked by eruptions and quakes, a "volcanic swamp" of lava-filled valleys and tortured terrain that promises to keep scientists busy for years to come.
"In the initial processing, we saw a lot of really interesting features," Magellan project scientist Stephen Saunders said Monday. "The stuff that we worked up initially, we were seeing volcanic depressions of various kinds, volcanic lava flows and very highly faulted regions that are called `tessera,' the Latin word for tile."It's a very highly deformed, faulted terrain, very rugged. We've seen that before at much larger scale, and now with Magellan we're seeing it all the way down to the scale of a few hundred yards."
While scientists are elated with Magellan's initial results - the first radar test images from the spacecraft were scheduled to be released at an afternoon news conference - engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory still were not sure what briefly knocked the spacecraft out of contact with Earth last week.
At least three problems, including a computer glitch and trouble maintaining the proper orientation in space, derailed Magellan's three-week test program almost as soon as it got started.
But contact was restored Friday and engineers are optimistic about fixing the problems and pressing on with Magellan's $551 million mission to map at least 90 percent of the surface of Venus at 10 times the resolution, or clarity, of any previous effort.
Saunders said the test data collected last week before contact was lost were better than expected, giving scientists confidence that Magellan may be able to help answer fundamental questions about why Venus, so similar to Earth in so many ways, turned into the 900-degree inferno it is today.
Magellan was designed to "see" through the clouds that blanket Venus by bouncing radar beams off the planet's surface. Extensive computer processing on Earth can convert such radar data into photolike images showing surface features as small as a football field.
The solar-powered spacecraft dropped into orbit around Venus Aug. 10, 15 months after launch from the shuttle Atlantis, and engineers were in the process of testing its sophisticated radar system when the probe went into a computer-induced state of hibernation Thursday that briefly knocked it out of contact with Earth.
But by that time, Magellan had gathered 1 1/2 orbits worth of radar test data that elated scientists said proves the spacecraft ultimately will be able to accomplish its 243-day mapping mission.