The Venus Orbiting Imaging Radar /VOIR/ mission

The VOIR mission will be devoted to obtaining synthetic aperture radar images of at least 70% of the Venus surface at resolutions of 600 m/line pair or better. High-resolution spot coverage, nested within the low-resolution data, will be obtained for up to 1% of the surface. Additional investigations will examine the shape and gravitational field of the planet, the character of its interior, the composition and dynamics of its atmosphere, and its interaction with the solar wind. This paper describes the VOIR mission as it is presently planned, and shows how the design of the spacecraft and the mission is responsive to the project science requirements as well as other programmatic constraints. In addition, several of the tradeoffs associated with the evolution of the present VOIR spacecraft and mission plan are reviewed.