What's going on in Japan
What's going on in Japan? (No.21)
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is considering tasking Venus probe Akatsuki with an additional mission, the observation of asteroids circling the second planet from the sun, sources said. The mission is designed to give the probe something to do until it takes another shot at entering an orbit around Venus in December 2016. Little data on asteroids on orbital paths closer to the sun than Earth has been gathered by major space probes. Most of the asteroids discovered so far are located between Mars and Jupiter. The U.S. probe Galileo and JAXA's Hayabusa explorer transmitted data on asteroids that are on orbital paths outside Earth. JAXA is calculating a path that will enable the probe to travel toward Venus after approaching the asteroids close enough for observation. Asteroids near Venus are exposed to the light and heat of the sun, an area of interest for scientists hoping to study data sent back by Akatsuki if the new mission gets the green light.
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