Venus Entry Probe (VEP) Initiative

1st Landing Sites Workshop, November 14-15, 2006, Vienna, Austria

last update: 29.12.2006

download 1st Announcement     .DOC     .PDF

 download Registration Form     .DOC     .PDF

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FIRST VENUS LANDING SITE WORKSHOP FOR THE
VENUS ENTRY PROBE (VEP)

November 14 - (15), 2006
Vienna, AUSTRIA

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LOC: Leitner Johannes, Firneis Maria

Dear Colleagues:

You are invited to participate in the first Venus Landing-Site Workshop for the Venus Entry Probe (VEP) initiative to Venus. The workshop will be held on November 14 (Tuesday) with a possible extension to November 15 (Wednesday), 2006, in Vienna, Austria.

AN OVERVIEW OF WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES:

The purpose of the Landing Site workshop is to identify and evaluate four potential landing sites for the descent probes best suited to achieving stated mission science objectives within the constraints imposed by engineering requirements and the necessity of ensuring a safe landing.  

A Landing Site Steering Committee together with the VEP Steering Committee will use the results of the workshop as the basis for selecting the list of potential landing sites under consideration. Community consensus with respect to high priority sites will also be respected.

Note: in general, the potential landing sites should focus on a wide latitudinal and altitudinal distribution (on the day-side: 20°, 50°, 80°, on the night-side: as much close as possible to antisolar point).

MISSION SCIENCE OBJECTIVES:

The primary scientific goals of the Venus Entry Probe (VEP) initiative regarding the surface and interior mission elements are:

Composition and mineralogy of the surface:     high

Surface morphology (imaging):                  high

Surface-atmosphere interactions:               high

Structure and substructure and interior:       low

Planetary heat balance:                        low

In consideration of the main scientific goals of the mission, a candidate landing site should contain aspects on: what we know already, what we can learn, and which measurements would be vital.

Note: the preliminary descent craft design is based on a survival time similar to the Venera probes (at maximum 2 hours) with no additional thermal protection.

An overview of the VEP mission can found on the homepage of the 1st VEP workshop (January 19-20, 2006, ESA/ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands) and in the first version of the white paper available there:

http://www.aero.jussieu.fr/VEP/.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE:

All members of the scientific community are encouraged to participate in this important workshop and to present a proposal.

Most of the workshop will be devoted to submitted papers describing potential landing sites and a first selection process on the basis of a large community consensus.

Individuals must prepare an abstract (not longer than two A4 pages summarizing details of their proposed site (what we know and what we can learn). Only talks will be admitted, no posters are to be submitted at the workshop.

A program will be prepared on the basis of the submitted abstracts and will be posted along with final logistical information in a separate announcement on 25 October 2006 and on the workshop homepage (coming soon): http://www.univie.ac.at\EPH\venus

Abstracts are due by October 20, 2006, and should be submitted electronically to venus@astro.univie.ac.at (format: *.doc or *.pdf) The abstracts are planned to be published on the VEP Landing Site Workshop homepage.

For logistical reasons all individuals, which are planning to attend the workshop are requested to send back the attached registration form not later than on September 15. There is no registration fee.

IMPORTANT DEADLINES:

Registration Deadline: September 15, 2006

Abstract Deadline: October 20, 2006

Final Program: October 25, 2006

VEP Landing Site Workshop: 14-(15) November 2006

Abstracts, registrations forms and questions to: venus@astro.univie.ac.at

Workshop homepage: http://www.univie.ac.at\EPH\venus

Best regards,

Johannes  J. Leitner,                                Maria G. Firneis

Chair, VEP Landing Site working group                Univ. Prof.

VEP Steering Committee                               LOC