NASA Unveils Two Missions to Explore Venus
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has selected two missions to Venus to help study the planet's atmosphere and geological features, BBC News reports.
What Are the Missions?
The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has selected two missions to explore Venus. Their goal is to understand how the planet's second farthest from the Sun became a "hell-like world" with many Earth-like characteristics. About 500 million dollars have been allocated for the preparation of each mission. Both are scheduled for 2028-2030.
As part of the DAVINCI + mission, experts intend to investigate the planet's atmosphere, consisting mainly of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, and also determine the possible existence of oceans on Venus in the past. And the VERITAS mission will be associated with mapping the Venusian surface. Within its framework, NASA expects to study the geological history of Venus and understand why this planet developed differently than Earth. It’s like the moon colonization of modern times.
The history of the United States' exploration of Venus began with the dispatch of the Mariner 2 spacecraft in 1962. The last American spacecraft, whose mission was to study the second planet in the distance from the Sun, was Magellan, launched in 1989 with the aim of detailed mapping of the Venusian surface.
“We know surprisingly little about Venus, so new missions will allow us to take a fresh look at the planet's atmosphere, which is mostly made of carbon dioxide, and study the surface down to its core,” said Tom Wagner, a NASA scientist.
NASA Senior Scientist Thomas Zurbuchen called the coming decade "a new decade dedicated to Venus."
Venus Space Explorers
The automated interplanetary station Venera-1, which was launched on February 12, 1961, was the first attempt to penetrate deep space and reconnoiter the working conditions of terrestrial technology in interplanetary space. Venera-1 was equipped with devices for measuring the intensity of cosmic radiation, the intensity of interplanetary magnetic fields, flows of charged particles of interplanetary gas, and flows of the Sun. They even installed instruments for recording micrometeors. In May 1961, the Venera-1 station reached the vicinity of the planet and transmitted primary information about deep space to Earth.
Just four years later, two Soviet stations, Venera-2 and Venera-3, went into space. Compared to the first spacecraft, they had one and a half times greater mass - 960 kg, which made it possible to install more scientific equipment on them and to install a descent vehicle on Venera-3. And in March 1966, for the first time in human history, a spacecraft created on Earth, Venus-3, reached another planet and entered its atmosphere.
With the same purpose to study the atmosphere of the mysterious planet, a little later, Venus-4 was launched. The device managed to make a parachute descent in the atmosphere, and it ceased to exist at an altitude of 22 km. Although "Venus-4" did not reach the surface of the planet, it fulfilled its task. Within an hour and a half, the device transmitted information to Earth, which in its significance surpassed everything that was known about Venus over the centuries-old history of mankind. The most significant achievement has been the proof that the planet has an atmosphere composed primarily of carbon dioxide.
The flight results of all subsequent stations of the Venera series confirmed this data on the composition of the planet's atmosphere. In particular, measurements have shown that the temperature at the surface of Venus is close to +475 ° C. It also became known that, despite the continuous cloud cover, the illumination near the surface is high enough to photograph the landing site of the descent vehicle without artificial illumination. This gave impetus to the implementation of a new task: it was decided to develop a new generation of interplanetary stations, capable of showing the "mysterious neighbor" of the Earth in photographs.
Venera-D
The Venera-D project is intended for long-term exploration of Venus. The project aims to continue the fundamental research of Venus, actively carried out in the 60-80s and early 90s by Soviet and American missions. Over the years, a large amount of data has been obtained concerning the structure and composition of the atmosphere, the cloud layer, wind speeds, and surface composition. However, many questions related to the dynamics of the atmosphere, problems of super-rotation, the giant greenhouse effect, the evolution of Venus, etc., remained unresolved. Impressive results were obtained by the European orbiter "Venus Express", however, many issues cannot be resolved from the orbiter.
The Venera-D project should provide a new qualitative level of scientific research on the planet when the observed natural phenomena occurring on the planet can be simultaneously studied both from orbit and on the surface of Venus.
The space complex under development should provide studies of the structure, energy balance, and dynamics of the lower atmosphere, the structure of the mesosphere, thermal tides, the chemical composition of the atmosphere, including isotopes of volatiles, the abundance of inert gases, and isotopic composition, the structure and chemistry of clouds, the nature of the UV absorber, chemical and mineralogical composition, including radioactive isotopes, surface geology, seismicity and volcanism, lightning, the problem of water and the processes of dissipation of atmospheric components, etc.
The Venera-D project will continue the exploration of Venus using an orbiter, subsatellite, and lander equipped with a wide range of scientific equipment. The inclusion of a long-lived station on the surface is being considered. A space project of such complexity will be implemented for the first time. World experience in the field of space engineering technology, in the creation of miniature measuring instruments, and in improving the quality of space radio communications will make it possible to implement this project.
