Colin Wilson, Oxford University

I work with the European Space Agency's Venus Express mission, mainly on observations of atmospheric dynamics and cloud proerties using the VIRTIS instrument. Venus Express was launched on the 9 Nov 2005, and has been orbiting Venus since the 11 April 2006.

I am co-PI for a proposal submitted to ESA in 2010 to fly a balloon mission to Venus, entitled the European Venus Explorer (EVE) mission. This follows an earlier EVE proposal submitted in 2007 , which proposed a larger joint ESA/Russia mission which would have included an orbiter and a lander.

For my doctoral degree, I developed a wind sensor for the Beagle 2 Mars lander, which was lost on arrival in December 2003. We have been developing new wind sensors for Mars landers, most recently as part of the Advanced Environmental Package to be flown on Europe's ExoMars mission.

Recent Publications

C.F. Wilson, Eric Chassefière, et al., The 2010 European Venus Explorer (EVE) mission proposal. Experimental Astronomy, published online Oct 2011, doi:10.1007/s10686-011-9259-9.

R. Ghail, C.F. Wilson, et al., EnVision: taking the pulse of our twin planet. Experimental Astronomy, published online August 2011, doi:10.1007/s10686-011-9244-3.

C. F. Wilson, C.C.C. Tsang, P.G.J. Irwin, F.W. Taylor B. Bézard, P. Drossart G. Piccioni, R.W. Carlson, R.C. Holmes, Analysis of thermal emission from the nightside of Venus at 1.51 and 1.55 microns, Icarus, 2009, doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2009.03.010.

C.F. Wilson, S. Guerlet, P.G.J. Irwin, C.C.C. Tsang, F.W. Taylor, R.W. Carlson, P. Drossart, G. Piccioni, Evidence for anomalous cloud particles at the poles of Venus, Journal of Geophysical Research . Planets, 113, E00B13, 2008, doi:10.1029/2008JE003108.

C. F. Wilson, A.L. Camilletti, S.B. Calcutt & P.M. Ligrani, A wind tunnel for the calibration of Mars wind sensors., Planetary and Space Science, 2008, doi:10.1016/j.pss.2008.05.011.

C. F. Wilson, E. Chassefière, et al., "Why we need to go to Venus: the future of European Venus exploration". International Astronautical Congress, paper #1789, Glasgow 3 Oct 2008. Download here.

For full publication list click here.

Posters:

Click here for a poster describing the EVE mission proposal. (Presented at Europlanet conference, Potsdam, August 2007).

Click here for a poster on initial atmospheric dynamics results from VIRTIS/Venus Express. (Presented at 1st European Planetary Sciences Conference, Berlin, Sep 2006).

Click here for a poster on 100-gramme Venus microprobes. (Presented at Chapman conference "Exploring Venus as a terrestrial Planet", Florida, Feb 2006).

Click here for a poster describing the Venus Entry Probe Workshop. (Presented at Chapman conference "Exploring Venus as a terrestrial Planet", Florida, Feb 2006), or click here to go to the VEP Workshop website.

Click here for a poster reviewing Mars wind sensing techniques. (Presented at DPS conference, Cambridge, Sep 2005).

Click here for a poster reviewing water vapour measurements in Venus atmosphere before Venus Express. Presented at EGU, Nice, April 2004.

The Beagle 2 Wind Sensor. This poster summarises the B2WS development, and includes preliminary work done on an experimental analogue of the convective updraft above a hot lander on Mars. Presented at EGS/AGU/EUG conference in Nice, April 2003.