Word: venusized
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...meet the June deadline, when the first Mariner of a series of three would have to be ready at Caoe Canaveral, the lab worked furiously. The designers used the basic frame of the ill-starred Ranger, added equipment needed for the longer voyage to Venus, and used the remaining weight allowance for as many observing instruments as could be squeezed in. Tests were run on every part, arguments raged. Pickering presided calmly and quietly over the melee. He commuted back and forth to NASA's Washington headquarters on the night plane, the "Red Eye," carrying reassurance in both directions...
...decision sent JPL into a paroxysm of technical creativeness; Mariner would have to leave the earth when Venus was in a favorable position-something that happens in 19-month cycles. Next chance was the summer of 1962, about nine months from the time the big decision was made. "There's an old saying," says Pickering dryly, "that any worthwhile project takes nine months...
...July 22, with Venus in perfect position for an easy encounter, Mariner I took off from Canaveral. For a while its Atlas climbed properly; then it began to yaw like a monstrous fish trying to shake a hook. All Canaveral watched in dismay as the great rocket snaked across the sky. The safety officer touched his destruct button, and the whole vehicle dissolved into a burst of orange flame and a shower of smoking shards...
Mariner II, golden and gleaming, was ready on the pad by Aug. 27, when Venus was still in friendly position. This time the launch went perfectly. The Agena second stage, with Mariner II in its nose, went smoothly into parking orbit. After 16 minutes, its engine fired again, soaring out on a curving course that would lead to Venus. A few minutes later, a cluster of exploding pins popped and the spacecraft spread its, wings into the hard sunlight. All this was reported by telemetry to JPL's 85-ft. dish antenna in South Africa and relayed...
...long voyage, the spacecraft carried two radiometers, one of them sensitive to radio microwaves, the other to infra-red rays. Each type of radiation behaves differently when passing through clouds or gases; the frequencies were selected to tell as much as possible about the temperature of Venus and the nature of its atmosphere...