MrShaggy writes "The BBC is reporting that the ESA has announced that they have to hold the Venus Mission. According to the article, contamination is being blamed. From the article: 'Esa said the delay had been prompted by the discovery that insulation from the rocket launcher had contaminated the Venus Express spacecraft. "The satellite is contaminated, so they will have to dismantle and re-mount it again," a spokesperson for the space agency told the BBC News website.'" ESA Venus Mission Delayed Log in/Create an Account | Top | 51 comments | Search Discussion Display Options Threshold: -1: 51 comments 0: 46 comments 1: 34 comments 2: 28 comments 3: 7 comments 4: 2 comments 5: 1 comments Flat Nested No Comments Threaded Oldest First Newest First Highest Scores First Oldest First (Ignore Threads) Newest First (Ignore Threads) The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way. At least they're doing it right. (Score:4, Insightful) by CyricZ (887944) on Saturday October 22, @08:50PM (#13854979) It's good to see that they're doing the right thing, regardless of the financial costs. [ Reply to This3 replies beneath your current threshold. It'll tell us something about greenhouse gases (Score:3, Insightful) by Cerdic (904049) on Saturday October 22, @08:52PM (#13854998) From the article: Composed chiefly of carbon dioxide, Venus' atmosphere generates intense greenhouse warming, whereby trapped solar radiation heats the surface of the planet to an average of temperature of 467C. Experts think Venus could teach us more about how the Earth's climate will respond to the release of greenhouse gases resulting from human activities. It will tell us what many of us know - that putting too much CO2 into the atmosphere will heat up the planet. Unfortunately, those with real power to do anything about it will continue to aim for quick gains with little regard for the future. I know someone will respond about how the earth naturally spews CO2, but many of our processes that produce CO2 also produce pollutants such as CO, arsenic, and PCBs. These other pollutants are proven to be dangerous. Why does nobody (hello media?) ever mention that? [ Reply to ThisRe:It'll tell us something about greenhouse gases by cnettel (Score:3) Saturday October 22, @09:13PMRe:It'll tell us something about greenhouse gases by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Saturday October 22, @09:22PMRe:It'll tell us something about greenhouse gases by biryokumaru (Score:2) Saturday October 22, @09:53PMRe:It'll tell us something about greenhouse gases by biryokumaru (Score:2) Saturday October 22, @09:58PMRe:It'll tell us something about greenhouse gases by Daniel Dvorkin (Score:2) Saturday October 22, @11:27PMRe:It'll tell us something about greenhouse gases by biryokumaru (Score:2) Saturday October 22, @11:39PMRe:It'll tell us something about greenhouse gases by biryokumaru (Score:3) Saturday October 22, @10:04PMRe:It'll tell us something about greenhouse gases by Tony Hoyle (Score:2) Saturday October 22, @11:43PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.It's not just the CO2 by everphilski (Score:2) Saturday October 22, @10:09PMRe:It's not just the CO2 by Vilim (Score:2) Saturday October 22, @10:18PMRe:It's not just the CO2 by petermgreen (Score:2) Sunday October 23, @12:23AMRe:It'll tell us something about greenhouse gases by CodeMayhem2 (Score:1) Saturday October 22, @10:40PM Re-mounting needed, eh? (Score:1) by Pneuma ROCKS (906002) on Saturday October 22, @09:27PM (#13855160) (http://jvillalobos.blogspot.com/) I guess all the "But does it run Linux?" jokes will be skipped on this one. [ Reply to This More info at the wikipedia (Score:3, Interesting) by Saiyine (689367) on Saturday October 22, @09:43PM (#13855213) (http://www.saiyine.com/) Interestingly enough, the mission has a pretty complete wikipedia article [wikipedia.org].But even better are these pictures of the surface of Venus [mentallandscape.com] from the old Venera missions. [ Reply to This1 reply beneath your current threshold. What to do with all the Carbon Dioxide on Earth (Score:2, Funny) by NewKimAll (923422) on Saturday October 22, @09:45PM (#13855222) Well, we are thinking about building a Space Elevator, so we could get rid of some of it that way. I mean, Carbon Nanotubes requires Carbon afterall. Then once we build a couple (cuz, you know one won't be enough), we can extract even more Carbon from the Oceans and send it out into space. Then we could mine Iron asteroids and use the Carbon we sent from Earth to make steel. It could happen.... [ Reply to ThisRe:What to do with all the Carbon Dioxide on Earth by amightywind (Score:2) Saturday October 22, @10:06PMRe:What to do with all the Carbon Dioxide on Earth by NewKimAll (Score:1) Saturday October 22, @10:54PM Could somebody please explain (Score:2, Interesting) by cr@ckwhore (165454) on Saturday October 22, @10:02PM (#13855274) (http://www.snowjournal.com/) Is this an excercise in unnecessary cleanliness, or does the spacecraft actually cease to function normally when "contaminated"? What's the point? I never quite understood this aspect of big government space initiatives. [ Reply to This Re:Could somebody please explain (Score:5, Interesting) by amightywind (691887) on Saturday October 22, @10:16PM (#13855315) I used to work at Hughes Space and Communications (now Boeing). All satellites used to undergo a vibration test on a giant paint shaker-like device. Ostensibly it was to verify that the satellite could handle vibrations during launch. The joke was on the factory floor that it was really to clean out screwdrivers and ham sandwiches left behind by the technicians who assembled the satellite. They actually put a white sheet under the rig to catch any parts that fell off. [ Reply to This | ParentRe:Could somebody please explain by deglr6328 (Score:2) Saturday October 22, @10:45PM More news from ESA (Score:1) by katana (122232) on Saturday October 22, @10:27PM (#13855359) (http://slashdot.org/) Fine, Venus, whatever. But seriously, tell me about Uranus. [ Reply to This1 reply beneath your current threshold. Uh... (Score:2, Funny) by NekoIncardine (838965) on Saturday October 22, @10:33PM (#13855377) Did anyone other than me think the (US's) Entertainment Software Association rather than the European Space Administration (name right?) when they first read this article?The Venus Mission... Sounds kinky when you're thinking games. [ Reply to ThisRe:Uh... by imemyself (Score:2) Sunday October 23, @12:32AM In other news... (Score:2, Funny) by Alias777 (841435) <gregmiller2@gmail.REDHATcom minus distro> on Saturday October 22, @10:37PM (#13855400) A monstrously large bulge seems to have formed on the surface of Mars, largely consisting of Martian male strippers in pyramid fashion. [ Reply to This Contamination has been identified (Score:2, Funny) by No2Gates (239823) on Saturday October 22, @10:41PM (#13855419) The contaminent has been put through a battery of tests and after careful analysis , it was determined to be a double shot decaf latte from Starbucks. [ Reply to This Article about possible life in V. atmosphere (Score:1) by Tablizer (95088) on Saturday October 22, @11:42PM (#13855675) (http://www.geocities.com/tablizer | Last Journal: Saturday March 15, @02:22PM) http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2843 [newscientist.com] [ Reply to This Hurricane Vita (Score:2) by fm6 (162816) on Saturday October 22, @11:59PM (#13855759) (http://picknit.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday August 09, @03:53PM) Composed chiefly of carbon dioxide, Venus' atmosphere generates intense greenhouse warming, whereby trapped solar radiation heats the surface of the planet to an average of temperature of 467C. Of course, this is a purely natural phenomenon, so no Venusian needs to give up his SUV! [ Reply to This Re:It will never go (Score:2, Funny) by MrShaggy (683273) on Saturday October 22, @09:00PM (#13855040) (Last Journal: Wednesday August 24, @10:59AM) I have a book. Men are from Mars, women are nuts. [ Reply to This | Parent1 reply beneath your current threshold. right (Score:3, Insightful) by Quadraginta (902985) on Saturday October 22, @10:20PM (#13855330) Of course it won't. The atmosphere of Venus is 96% CO2 (Earth's is 0.03%). The solar flux is four times higher. There are no oceans on Venus, and indeed all the Venerian water seems to have vanished, possibly as a result of that increased solar flux. And finally, there is no biosphere, and we know the Earth's biosphere has a profound effect on its atmosphere (and vice versa).If the goal is understanding CO2 and climate change, the atmosphere to study is right over our heads (which saves a lot on shipping costs). Obviously any competent scientist knows this, and so none of them would be so silly as to propose spending umpty millions sending a few instruments to Venus to study global warming on Earth.I expect this little comment in TFA is a fanciful addition by the BBC to suit their own agenda. Pity they can't leave that agenda on the editorial page, however. It can make the scientists involved look like axe-grinding fools, which in turn makes it that much harder to convince undecided ordinary people to study the climate responsibly and seriously. With "friends" like the BBC, I'd say serious climatologists need no enemies. [ Reply to This | ParentPerhaps by Space cowboy (Score:2) Saturday October 22, @11:32PMah so by Quadraginta (Score:2) Sunday October 23, @12:24AMRe:right by quax (Score:2) Saturday October 22, @11:58PM9 replies beneath your current threshold.