The Rationale for a New High-resolution Imaging Radar Mission to Venus

Details The Rationale for a New High-resolution Imaging Radar Mission to Venus The Rationale for a New High-resolution Imaging Radar Mission to Venus

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.p33a1281h&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #P33A-1281

Mathematics

Logic

[5400] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets, [5470] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Surface Materials And Properties, [5494] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Instruments And Techniques, [6295] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Venus

Scientific paper

Magellan, NASA’s last geoscience mission to Venus, provided synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images at ~100-m resolution, topography at ~10-km resolution, and the gravity field at ~300-km resolution. Although that mission provided a major advance in our understanding of the planet, basic questions about the geologic history of Venus remain unresolved. For example, hypotheses on the planet’s surface evolution range from uniformitarian to catastrophic, and assessments of current geologic activity range from earth-comparable levels of volcanic and tectonic activity to a surface shaped only by occasional impact and eolian processes. It is now feasible to send a mission to Venus that could provide SAR imaging at 1-5-m resolution; topography with tens-of-meters spatial resolution by utilizing interferometric SAR (InSAR) and stereo radargrammetry; and surface deformation at centimeter-scale vertical resolution through InSAR. Such a mission would substantially further our understanding of Venus by means of: (1) assessing the fundamental framework of the planet's geologic history (e.g., catastrophic change, slow evolution, uniformitarian) by imaging key stratigraphic contacts; (2) expanding the global framework of geomorphic unit types and relative stratigraphy with reconnaissance surveys of large geographic provinces; (3) directly detecting volcanic and tectonic activity through imaging of flows and fault-related activities (e.g., landslides) that occur between imaging passes; (4) monitoring present-day volcanic and tectonic activity with repeat-pass InSAR deformation studies; (5) constraining the nature of Venusian geologic volcanic and tectonic processes, and their relationship to mantle convective processes; (6) understanding the role of eolian processes in modifying the surface and the use of eolian features as stratigraphic markers (e.g., parabolic features) through detailed examination; (7) constraining Venusian impact processes, particularly the role of the atmosphere in the ejecta emplacement process; (8) constraining the processes responsible for the abrupt decrease in emissivity at high altitudes; (9) selecting landing sites for future missions; and (10) identifying past landers/probes to place them in geologic context. Our state of knowledge about Venus is currently analogous to our knowledge of Mars in the post-Viking era, and a high-resolution imaging radar mission to Venus could revolutionize our understanding of Venus in the way that the Mars Global Surveyor mission did for Mars.

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