NASA’s DAVINCI mission studies the origin, evolution, and current state of Venus in unprecedented detail from the top of the clouds to the surface of the planet. The mission is to help answer long-standing questions about our neighboring planet, especially whether Venus is as wet and habitable as Earth. Acknowledgments: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
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last year, NASA was chosen The DAVINCI ‘S MISSION As part of the Discovery program. It will examine the origin, development and condition[{” attribute=””>Venus in unparalleled detail from near the top of the clouds to the planet’s surface. Venus, the hottest planet in the solar system, has a thick, toxic atmosphere filled with carbon dioxide and an incredible pressure of pressure is 1,350 psi (93 bar) at the surface.
Named after visionary Renaissance artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci, the DAVINCI mission Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging will be the first probe to enter the Venus atmosphere since <span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt" data-cmtooltip="
Now, in a recently published paper, NASA scientists and engineers give new details about the agency’s Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging (DAVINCI) mission, which will descend through the layered Venus atmosphere to the surface of the planet in mid-2031. DAVINCI is the first mission to study Venus using both spacecraft flybys and a descent probe.
DAVINCI, a flying analytical chemistry laboratory, will measure critical aspects of Venus’ massive atmosphere-climate system for the first time, many of which have been measurement goals for Venus since the early 1980s. It will also provide the first descent imaging of the mountainous highlands of Venus while mapping their rock composition and surface relief at scales not possible from orbit. The mission supports measurements of undiscovered gases present in small amounts and the deepest atmosphere, including the key ratio of hydrogen isotopes – components of water that help reveal the history of water, either as liquid water oceans or steam within the early atmosphere.
NASA has chosen the DAVINCI + mission (Deep Atmosphere Investigation of Noble Gases, Chemistry, and Imaging +) as part of its discovery program, and it will be the first probe to enter the atmosphere of Venus since NASA’s Venus Astronaut in 1978 and USSR Vega in 1985. Name the mission of DAVINCI + for renaissance artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci to bring 21st century technologies to the next world. DAVINCI + can reveal whether Earth’s sister planet is very similar to Earth’s twin in the distant past, possibly hospitable to oceans and continents. Acknowledgments: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
The mission’s Carrier, Relay and Imaging (CRIS) spacecraft will carry two instruments that study the planet’s clouds and map the mountainous regions as Venus flies, as well as a small five-instrument landing that will provide a number of new features. it measures down to the surface of the hellish Venus with extreme precision.
“This set of chemical, environmental, and origin data gives an idea of the atmospheric layers of Venus and how they interact with the surface in the Alpha Reggio Mountains, which is twice the size of Texas,” said lead author Jim Garvin. From a research article in the Journal of Planetary Science and DAVINCI, a senior researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “These measurements allow us to assess the historical aspects of the atmosphere and to detect special rock types, such as granite, on the surface, while also looking for landscape features that may indicate erosion or other formation processes.”
DAVINCI sends a one-meter-diameter probe that can withstand high temperatures and pressures near the surface of Venus to reveal the atmosphere from the area above the clouds near the surface of the terrain that may have been a former continent. During the last kilometers of the free fall (the artist’s impression can be seen here), the probe takes stunning images and chemical measurements of the deepest atmosphere of Venus for the first time. Acknowledgments: NASA / GSFC / CI Labs
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DAVINCI will use three types of Venus Gravity Aids to provide fuel to change the speed and / or direction of the CRIS flight system using the planet’s gravity. The first two gravity assistants will help prepare CRIS for a flying Venus to perform remote sensing in ultraviolet and near-infrared radiation, gaining more than 60 gigabytes of new data about the atmosphere and the surface. Venus ’third gravitational aid creates a spacecraft that launches the probe for entry, landing, flagging and landing, and return to Earth.
The first flight of Venus will be six and a half months after launch, and it will take two years for the probe to return to the atmosphere above the Alpha Regio under “perfect” illumination, with the goal of measuring the atmosphere. Landscape of Venus from 328 feet (100 meters) to a size finer than one meter. These gauges allow geological surveys to be carried out in the Venus Mountains without landing.
The DAVINCI Deep Atmosphere Probe descends to the Alpha Regio Mountains through the dense carbon dioxide atmosphere of Venus. Acknowledgments: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
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As soon as CRIS is about two days away from Venus, the probe’s flight system will launch, along with a three-foot (1-meter) titanium probe that is securely enclosed. The probe interacts with the upper atmosphere of Venus 75 miles (120 kilometers) above the surface. The scientific probe will begin scientific observations after the heat shield has been removed approximately 42 miles (67 kilometers) above the surface. By removing the heat shield, the probe inlets would absorb atmospheric gas samples to perform detailed chemical measurements such as those performed by[{”attribute=””>MarswiththeCuriosityroverDuringitshour-longdescenttothesurfacetheprobewillalsoacquirehundredsofimagesassoonasitemergesunderthecloudsataround100000feet(30500meters)abovethelocalsurface[{”attribute=””>MarswiththeCuriosityroverDuringitshour-longdescenttothesurfacetheprobewillalsoacquirehundredsofimagesassoonasitemergesunderthecloudsataround100000feet(30500meters)abovethelocalsurface
“The probe will touch-down in the Alpha Regio mountains but is not required to operate once it lands, as all of the required science data will be taken before reaching the surface.” said Stephanie Getty, deputy principal investigator from Goddard. “If we survive the touchdown at about 25 miles per hour (12 meters/second), we could have up to 17-18 minutes of operations on the surface under ideal conditions.”
DAVINCI is tentatively scheduled to launch June 2029 and enter the Venusian atmosphere in June 2031.
“No previous mission within the Venus atmosphere has measured the chemistry or environments at the detail that DAVINCI’s probe can do,” said Garvin. “Furthermore, no previous Venus mission has descended over the tesserae highlands of Venus, and none have conducted descent imaging of the Venus surface. DAVINCI will build on what Huygens probe did at Titan and improve on what previous in situ Venus missions have done, but with 21st century capabilities and sensors.”
Reference: “Revealing the Mysteries of Venus: The DAVINCI Mission” by James B. Garvin, Stephanie A. Getty, Giada N. Arney, Natasha M. Johnson, Erika Kohler, Kenneth O. Schwer, Michael Sekerak, Arlin Bartels, Richard S. Saylor, Vincent E. Elliott, 24 May 2022, The Planetary Science Journal.
DOI: 10.3847/PSJ/ac63c2
NASA Goddard is the principal investigator institution for DAVINCI and will perform project management for the mission, provide science instruments as well as project systems engineering to develop the probe flight system. Goddard also leads the project science support team with an external science team from across the US. Discovery Program class missions like DAVINCI complement NASA’s larger “flagship” planetary science explorations, with the goal of achieving outstanding results by launching more smaller missions using fewer resources and shorter development times. They are managed for NASA’s Planetary Science Division by the Planetary Missions Program Office at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Major partners for DAVINCI are Lockheed Martin, Denver, Colorado, The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, California, NASA’s Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California’s Silicon Valley, and KinetX, Inc., Tempe, Arizona, as well as the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
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