The mission concept came out of an 18-month study by an MIT-led world consortium. The study was partially funded by the nonprofit Breakthrough Initiatives.
Dubbed the “fast” mission, the first VLF probe was designed to launch on a Rocket Lab Electron rocket. Likely in early 2023.
A spaceship is about to crash into atmosfer Venus like a small plane carrying an instrument package. The fast mission’s science goals were to measure the various abundances of the chemical at different altitudes, including ascertaining the presence of phosphine gas—a potential sign of life that is a topic of great debate in the scientific community.
“We hope this is the start of a new paradigm where you go cheaply, more often, and in a more focused way,” Sara Seager of MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, principal investigator of the planned VLF mission, said. in a statement late last year, quoted from SpaceWednesday (13/4/2022).
The remaining mystery
Seager says many mysteries exist on Venus. The mystery probably won’t be solved unless there’s a mission back there.
Seager is part of the team reporting on the 2020 detection gas fosfin in the atmosphere of Venus. On Earth, the gas is only produced by biological and industrial processes.
Since that claim, the discovery of phosphine has been challenged. However, Seager said the controversial findings have sparked positive momentum for the Venus mission. “The whole phosphine controversy makes people more interested in Venus. This allows people to take Venus more seriously,” he said.
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