The Evening Star: Venus Observed

The Magellan spacecraft currently in orbit around Venus is transmitting a stream of data and pictures to excited scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. In this low-keyed, gracefully written but often technical report, New Yorker staff writer Cooper, who interviewed many NASA engineers and scientists, discusses controversies over the data, near-fatal computer glitches, mechanical problems plaguing flight controllers, competition among rival scientific teams and constant worries over securing adequate funding for the mission. Radar images reveal Venus to be a maze of volcanoes, lava-covered plains and mountain ranges, bathed in a heavy, searing carbon dioxide atmosphere--the prototype for our fears of the greenhouse effect. The new data on Venus's planetary evolution, according to Cooper, suggests that the Earth, like its nearest neighbor, is in danger of becoming a vast pressure cooker inhospitable to life. (July)