https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/05/our-only-mission-at-venus-may-have-just-gone-dark/
A jealous planet guards its secrets closely?
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15947756
The main engine did not work, so to reduce the spacecraft's mass, they tossed 65 kg of oxidizer overboard. With the craft's reduced mass, the operators planned to use Akatsuki's four hydrazine-powered attitude control thrusters to insert the vehicle into an elliptical orbit around Venus.
As anyone who's ever played KSP knows, sometimes it does come to that 🤷🏻♂️
I wonder why they didn't dump the fuel as well, or use the oxidizer in the hydrazine thrusters. Incompatible plumbing?
Seems like we mostly just do flybys, or crash a ship through the atmosphere anyway. Venus likes to kill anything that tries to live there.