Akatsuki (spacecraft) has use research
Mission
Akatsuki is Japan's first planetary exploration mission since the failed Mars orbiter Nozomi probe which was launched in 1998. Akatsuki was originally intended to conduct scientific research for two or more years from an elliptical orbit around Venus ranging from 300 to 80,000 km (190 to 49,710 mi) in altitude, but its alternate orbit had to be highly elliptical ranging between 1,000 and 10,000 kilometres (620 and 6,210 mi) at its nearest point and about 360,000 kilometres (220,000 mi) at its farthest. This larger orbit takes 10 days to complete instead of the originally planned 30 hours. The budget for this mission is ¥14.6 billion (US$174 million) for the satellite and ¥9.8 billion (US$116 million) for the launch.Observations include cloud and surface imaging from an orbit around the planet with cameras operating in the infrared, visible and UV wavelengths to investigate the complex Venusian meteorology and elucidate the processes behind the mysterious atmospheric super-rotation. On Venus, while the planet rotates at 6 kilometres per hour (3.7 mph) at the equator, the atmosphere spins around the planet at 300 kilometres per hour (190 mph). Other experiments are designed to confirm the presence of lightning and to determine whether volcanism occurs currently on Venus.