Venus Express runs low on fuel.

In the past few days, the Venus Express has made several dangerous maneuvers with immersion in the upper atmosphere of Venus . Maneuvers may be the last for a spacecraft, but so far everything is fine. ESA experts hope that Venus Express can live to 2015.

Initially, the device was launched at the rate of 2 + 2 years of operation (two nominal and two additional), but 8 years of successful operation have already passed. He simply ends up with fuel, which makes it possible at the end of the day to take a chance and get valuable scientific information about our nearest neighbor planet.

Venus Express successfully survived airborne braking in the summer of 2014 , while reducing the orbital period from 24 to 22 hours (and making life difficult for operators on Earth who work in shifts). For a whole month, the device dived into the atmosphere for about 100 seconds and emerged back. During the dives, it decreased down to a height of 130 km, although its nominal orbit had a pericenter of 250 km. It should be noted that at an altitude of 165 and 130 km, the atmospheric density increases almost 1000 times.
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Now the fuel consumed more and more. Due to the combination of the gravity of Venus and the Sun, the Venus Express pericenter is constantly approaching the planet, immersing the satellite into the atmosphere with a destructive effect. We have to turn on the engines daily to raise it to a safe orbit (3-5 km per day).

Now everything depends on the fuel and oxidizer on board. According to calculations, the oxidizer remains from 3 to 5 kg, and part of it may be unavailable due to the movement of fuel in the tanks. It is assumed that the new maneuvers need 1.4 kg of fuel and 2 kg of oxidizer. Should be enough.

Even if the maneuvers are completed successfully, after the depletion of fuel reserves, the mission of Venus Express will come to a natural end. This is very regrettable, because the satellite is in excellent technical condition.

During its operation, Venus Express made a number of discoveries . He found a surprisingly cold region in the upper atmosphere, as well as a high-altitude ozone layer. Venus Express confirmed that Venus is losing water from the upper atmosphere, which confirms the theory that it once looked like Earth.

In the upper atmosphere, various variants of sulfur dioxide were found, and on the surface of Venus - traces of volcanic activity in the last geological epoch.