The Face of Venus: The Magellan Radar Mapping Mission

In the succession of distinguished visitors from Earth to Venus, the Magellan spacecraft has been the most recent. The visitors through the years have consisted of an armada of spacecraft – flybys, orbiters, and landers. Each managed to pierce a small hole in the veil of mystery that has surrounded Venus since the discovery of the telescope. This manuscript offers but a peek at the treasures to be found in the Magellan dataset – and a glimpse into the volumes that have been and will continue to be written regarding the geology of Venus. As the reader looks throughout this book, he will be led one-by-one through the treasures Magellan has gathered – in a manner neither stilted nor oversimplified – and the reader will gain an appreciation of Venus that spans several disciplines and several realms.