Magellan: radar map of Venus and first planetary aerobraking
Magellan: mapa de radar de Venus y primer aerofrenado planetario
- Date
- 1990-1994 · confidence high
- Place
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, United States
- Credited to
- NASA / JPL (synthetic aperture radar by Hughes)
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Using a synthetic aperture radar, Magellan mapped 98 % of Venus's surface through the clouds at about 100 m resolution. It showed volcanoes, coronae and a young surface without plate tectonics, and tested aerobraking to circularise its orbit.
Aerobraking had already been tried by Japan's Hiten at Earth (1991); Magellan was the first craft to use it at another planet (1993). The age of Venus's surface is debated.
What it led to
- Venus's geological history: global resurfacing about 500 million years ago
- the aerobraking technique used on Mars Global Surveyor, MRO and ExoMars
- gravity maps of Venus