[2544] From: PAO.POST at GSFCMAIL 10/13/92 7:30AM (6032 bytes: 104 ln)
To: #Goddard Public Affairs Office at SDG, #Goddard Public Affairs Office at
  SIG1, #Goddard Public Affairs Office at F&A
Subject: dateline
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                         TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1992

GODDARD'S INVOLVEMENT IN THE PIONEER VENUS MISSION:  The Pioneer
Venus spacecraft, which has been orbiting Venus since 1978, lost
communication with Earth last Thursday, October 8. Using Pioneer
Venus data, scientists at Goddard have contributed significantly to
investigations of the dynamics, energetics and sources of plasma in
the immediate vicinity of Venus.  Goddard scientists and engineers
were responsible for the development of three of the 12 instruments
on Pioneer Venus: the Ion Mass Spectrometer, the Electron
Temperature Probe and the Neutral Mass Spectrometer.  "Goddard has
had long involvement with Pioneer Venus and played a major role in
the mission planning," said Dr. Richard Hartle, head of Planetary
Atmospheres Branch, Code 914. "This was one of NASA's most
successful missions ever.  No scientific spacecraft has ever
orbited another planet for this many years."  The Pioneer Venus
orbiter made the first maps of the planet and has returned
thousands of pictures of Venus' clouds.  It has returned Venus
environment data for 14 years.  These data are a major resource for
understanding solar system dynamics.  One question that
particularly interested Goddard scientists was whether Venus had
oceans. Using the Ion Mass Spectrometer, scientists have found an
extremely high ratio of deuterium (heavy hydrogen) to normal
hydrogen. This is evidence for loss of Venus oceans.