... Max-Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau , Germany ; Институт космических исследований . ... In particular, a systematic and long-term survey of the atmosphere was missing, and most aspects of atmospheric behaviour remained puzzling. After the Magellan radar mapping mission ended in 1994, there followed a hiatus of more than a decade in Venus research, until the European Space Agency (ESA) took up the challenge and sent its own spacecraft to our planetary neighbour . ...