Word: venusized
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Lilley helped design the radiometer which measured the temperature on Venus during the recent Mariner II space probe. Oettinger has been directing Harvard's project on machine translation of Russian into English...
Physicist Louis D. Kaplan of the University of Nevada and JPL, who helped design Mariner II's infra-red experiment, thinks that at ground level, Venus' atmospheric pressure may be 10 to 20 times that of Earth. Its dry, unbreathable air contains perhaps 10% carbon dioxide (v. .03% for Earth) and probably a little nitrogen. The clouds are so dense that the surface is probably dark. Radar waves bounced off Venus indicate rather uncertainly that there may be both mountains and smooth places, as on the earth...
Evidence from radio telescopes shows that Venus rotates very slowly, if at all. It may cruise around the sun without turning, which would make its day equal to its year (225 Earth days). Or it may turn slowly enough to keep the same face toward the sun, as Mercury does. In either case, Mariner II's report that the planet's surface is about the same temperature all over calls for some new thinking. During its long, possibly unending night, the dark side should tend to cool off. Why does it stay...
While the scientists are still debating the baffling news brought back from Venus, JPL will be gunning for other information beyond the limits of Earth. "Our experience with Mariner II was a modest little nursery-school exercise," says Space Sciences Chief Robert Meghreblian. "It was nothing to compare with what we will do in the next few years...
Venusian Gales. The recent Mariner shot was so successful that it need not be repeated. The next Venus probe will be much more sophisticated. Dr. Meghreblian thinks that Venus is probably plagued by terrific winds, and he wants the next spacecraft to drop a capsule into the planet's clouds to release tough-skinned balloons that will drift with the Venusian gales. A few such balloons, carrying radios that can be followed by an orbiting spacecraft, should tell a lot about the planet's meteorology and perhaps explain what the mysterious clouds are made...