French journalists tackle science

Have to admit we missed this until we heard the unmistakable sounds of snickering over at The Corner.

PARIS (AFP) - Venus Express, the European Space Agency's first mission to explore Earth's closest neighbour, will be launched next Wednesday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The ESA gave the prospective launch time as 0443 GMT.

The 1.27-tonne unmanned spacecraft, which will be taken aloft by a Russian-made Soyuz-Fregat rocket, is expected to arrive at Venus on April 6.

Venus Express, equipped with seven instruments, is intended to map the Venusian surface and weather system, looking at temperature variation, cloud formations, wind speeds and gas composition.

A-OK so far, all systems register nominal. But then the red blinking light comes on:

Its main goal is to help understand why Venus fell prey to runaway global warming.

Holy Hothouse, Batman! Was the Kyoto Treaty ignored by the Venusian government? Were the "profits before pure air" Republicans of Venus in charge?

Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is similar in size, mass and age to Earth, but the two planets are otherwise quite different.

The so-called Morning Star has clouds of suffocating gas driven by hurricane-force winds, as well as a surface pressure and temperature high enough to crush and melt steel.

Surely we need answers quickly to avert a similar fate.