Fed2 Star - the newsletter for the space trading game Federation 2

The weekly newsletter for Fed2
by ibgames

EARTHDATE: December 13, 2015

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REAL LIFE NEWS: IN ORBIT AROUND VENUS

by Hazed

Yet more spaceprobe news now. Humanity has returned to Venus, albeit in the form of a robotic explorer orbiting the planet. The Japanese Space Agency has confirmed that their spacecraft Akatsuki is in orbit and is already sending back pictures.

This is an amazing feat, given that it was a last-ditch attempt to salvage a mission that had gone wrong. Akatsuki tried to go into orbit around Venus in 2010, but it suffered an engine malfunction and missed. The ship went hurtling off into space, and without its main engines, it looked like it was doomed.

But scientists were able to use its smaller manoeuvring thrusters to slowly nudge it into a Venus orbit. It took them five years, but it worked.

That’s quite amazing persistence! The ingenuity of the team will allow us to study further a planet that we still don’t know much about.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/confirmed-akatsuki-is-in-orbit-around-venus-1746553195

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