On Wednesday, NASA announces two new missions to Venus, which will take place between 2028 and 2030. This will be NASA’s first mission to the planet in decades.
– The goal of these sister missions is to understand how Venus became such an inferno-like world where lead can melt on the surface, Nelson says.
The mission, which has been named DaVinci Plus, will analyze the thick and cloudy atmosphere to find out if there was ever ocean on the surface and if Venus has ever been habitable. A small vessel should be sent into the atmosphere to measure gas levels.
The second mission, Veritas, will examine the planet’s geology and map the rocky surface.
Little hospitable neighbor
Venus is our closest planet and the other planet from the sun. The structure of Venus has much in common with the earth, but is a little smaller and very much warmer. The surface is covered by a thick, toxic atmosphere which consists mainly of carbon dioxide. The temperature on the planet can reach 471 degrees, making it the warmest in the solar system.
Scientists believe that the inhospitable planet may once have been home to several lakes that potentially contained life, before unknown forces created today’s extreme greenhouse effect, which also evaporated the lakes.
Many questions
The planned projects will be the first trips to Venus’ atmosphere since 1978.
“It is striking how little we know about Venus, but these missions will give us new knowledge about the planet’s atmosphere,” says Nasa researcher Tom Wagner.
– Nasa chief Bill Nelson on Wednesday announced plans for the two unmanned spacecraft to Venus. Photo: Bill Ingalls / AP
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Among other things, the researchers hope that the new expeditions will provide answers to how climate change and water loss affect the habitability of a planet.
Each mission, launched between 2028 and 2030, will receive $ 500 million from NASA’s development program. They outperformed two other possible projects that would explore Jupiter’s moon Io and Neptune’s frozen moon Triton.
The United States and the Soviet Union sent several spacecraft to Venus in the early years of space travel. The first successful flight past the planet was made by the United States in 1962, while the Soviet Union landed on the planet in 1970.
In 1989, Nasa launched a spacecraft orbiting Venus, while the European Space Agency (ESA) did the same in 2006.
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