In order to obtain gravity data for Venus, the Magellan spacecraft will furnish an unmodulated downlink carrier signal which is coherent with a highly stable uplink from the NASA-JPL Deep Space Network. After the removal of gross Doppler shifts induced by planetary motions and Magellan's primary orbital motion, residual Doppler shifts will indicate miniscule gravity variations in the mass distributions at, and below, the Venusian surface. These gravity measurements are valuable for understanding the nature and origin of features identifiable with imaging data.
Magellan mapping update - A matter of gravity
Aerospace America ; 31 , 5
1993-05-01
Miscellaneous
No indication
English
Magellan mapping update: A matter of gravity
British Library Online Contents | 1993
|Magellan mapping update: A matter of gravity.
Online Contents | 1993
|NTRS | 1986
|Magellan flight operations update
NTRS | 1992
|The Magellan Venus mapping mission
NTRS | 1989
|