Aaarrrgghhhh.....

From Sky News website. Spot the obvious mistake....
EURO MISSION TO VENUS

Earth's "evil twin" will be the focus of Europe's next £150m mission to space.

Scientists from the European Space Agency are preparing to launch the Venus Express craft on a five month quest.


The journey is the first to Venus, our closest neighbour, for 15 years and will help study the effects of global warming.

Venus is similar in size and mass to Earth and about the same distance from the Sun but their environments could not be further apart.

Original article at
http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0...451616,00.html

Unbelievable that such a fundamental error can slip through editorial checking.

It should be unbelievable, but I'm no longer surprised at the depth of ignorance in the media where matters astronomical are being discussed.

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- Learn a lot teaching others.

Despite these obvious errors, one can only hope the Venus Express craft will find some interesting tidbits to further our knowledge, one doesn't have to think back far to think of the embarassment of Beagle 2.

Mars Express is a great success, unfortunately overshadowed in the public's eye by the failure of Beagle 2 (as your post suggests). The problems with Beagle 2 involved trying to do too much with too little and are not relevant to the prospects for Venus Express.

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

I completely agree that any issues relating to Beagle 2 have absolutely nothing to do with the success of Venus Express, and I'd also agree that Mars Express did a wonderful job, in relating it to the ESA though, one can't deny that they put a great deal of emphasis on Beagle 2 for the public, and the lead scientist, Colin? I think it was, probably more so than they needed to and I agree it was a case of trying to do too much with too little.

There is some sort of balance that needs to be struck with these sort of missions, they need to involve the general public and make them excited about Space and its exploration, but they have to be careful not to raise expectations too far. Far be it from me to recommend the balance that needs to be struck because its an ever moving target and certainly not easy to arrive at, but those involved in the missions need to be aware of how they're being perceived and have to be mindful of that. Not an easy task.

For the record, I have the highest of regard for any and all scientists and engineers involved in these projects. For me, my favourite missions were the Voyager missions, but looking back, I wonder if their success was perhaps a little underplayed, I found them truly inspiring, but I've come to realise that amongst my cohort they weren't really recognised as such by the great majority of people, which is a terrible pity.