I was surprised to see Venus (43) is on a par with Mars (40, although there have been several missions since 2009) and far more than the number of missions to the Sun (9).<p>I assume Venus is easier to send missions to than the Sun or Mars, but the relatively large number of missions seems strange considering the planet's atmosphere, which is not friendly to spacecraft or photography and instrumentation based on visible light. (Or maybe that's why there have been so many missions, to lift the veil ...)<p>Does anyone have any insights into why Venus has been such a popular mission destination?
I would rather see to-scale diagrams of a single space mission. Does anyone know of any?<p>This is part of a larger desire of mine that data given to the public is more "real" and less "pedagogical". Not a criticism of the current article, clearly they are focusing one something different.
This poster could use a timestamp. As other commenter mentioned, this map is from 2009 [0], but even not minding that, if I were ever to print it and put in on a wall, the date would be relevant to anyone who looked at it.<p>[0] - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6957391" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6957391</a>
It will be very interesting to see how and when this outreach will turn into a show of territorial solidarity. It <i>will</i> happen sooner or later! In fact, looking at the rate at which they are now discovering exoplanets, and probably will soon find some intelligent life too, I am curious how this outreach would become the zone that is under the protection or stewardship of planet earth. Or someone else's if that be the case.