Exciting missions on Mars have received attention in recent years. At the end of this decade, it will be Venus’ turn to be in the spotlight again.
NASA has not sent a dedicated spacecraft to Venus since 1989. At that time, Magellan was launched. The probe mapped the surface of Venus using radar until 1994.
Since then it has been fairly quiet.
Those Venus Express orbited Venus from 2006 to 2014. Japan Akatsuki, emerged in 2015 and still travels around the planet. Other spacecraft have stopped by in connection with other missions.
NASA has now announced that they will return to Venus. Two projects receive $ 500 million each.
The two projects were selected from four candidates competing in NASA’s Discovery program.
– Like rediscovering the planet
Scientists believe that much remains to be found about the Earth’s sister planet.
“It’s amazing how little we know about Venus,” said Tom Wagner, director of the Discovery program. the message from NASA.
According to Wagner, the two new missions will provide new knowledge about everything from the clouds on Venus’ sky, volcanoes on the surface and all the way down to the core.
– It will be as if we have rediscovered the planet, he says.
Shortly after NASA’s announcement, it became known that ESA, the European Space Agency, was also planning a trip to Venus. It writes among others Space.com. EnVision will orbit the planet and bring with it instruments that can tell about the atmosphere, the surface and the planet’s interior.
Was Venus like Earth?
An exciting topic that scientists hope to gain more insight into is what happened in Venus’ past.
Has Venus always been a fiery inferno? Or is it as simulations from 2019 indicated, that Venus may have had a mild and fine climate for up to three billion years.
Venus and Earth may have had very similar atmospheres in the beginning. Why did they become so different?
There are two main theories. Either Venus was doomed to get hot from the start, or something happened in the planet’s past that changed the climate completely.
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Earth-like zone in the clouds
Some studies of Venus in recent years may have contributed to renewed interest in the planet.
In 2020, researchers reported that they had discovered phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus. It is a gas that can be signs of life. The discovery was later questioned by other researchers. They did not find the same.
About 50 kilometers above the surface of Venus, there is a temperature and pressure reminiscent of conditions on Earth. It has been speculated that microbes may survive in the clouds.
It has been suggested that mysterious “dark spots” that absorb light in Venus’ atmosphere may be microbes. The particles are the same size and have the same light-absorbing properties as microorganisms found in the Earth’s atmosphere, according to an earlier press release fra University of Wisconsin-Madison.
On the surface, interesting things may also happen. Some of the volcanoes can still be active.
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Should fall through the atmosphere
NASA’s two new expeditions to Venus are called DAVINCI + and VERITAS. They are scheduled to start in 2028 to 2030.
DAVINCI + will make measurements of Venus’ thick atmosphere.
It is not so easy to make landing craft that can withstand the extreme conditions on Venus. The temperature is around 470 degrees and the pressure is enormous. The longest a spacecraft has managed there is two hours.
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For DAVINCI +, it is not the landing that becomes important, but the way down.
A probe should fall to the surface, sending information about the atmosphere on the road. This will help to find out how the atmosphere came to be and how it has developed. It should also give a hint if there has been water on the surface.
The probe will be destroyed shortly after landing.
On the way down, it will measure the levels of noble gases and other substances in the air.
Different versions of noble gases have different origins in the interior of the planet. Thus, scientists can wind up in what has happened on the planet.
Rare landformer
DAVINCI + is named after the multi-artist Leonardo da Vinci. During its journey, the probe will do more things than measure substances in the atmosphere.
The probe should also measure the pressure, temperature and wind as it falls.
On the way to the surface, hundreds of photos will be taken of Alpha Regio, an ancient elevation in the landscape that is twice the size of Texas.
Alpha Regio is a so-called “tesserae”, landforms that can be compared to the earth’s continents. This may indicate that there was plate tectonics on Venus, writes NASA.
Before the probe is released, the spacecraft will orbit Venus and study the surface.
An instrument will help to find out what the unknown that absorbs ultraviolet light in the clouds is for something, writes NASA.
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Will map the entire planet
The second project, VERITAS, will also offer new insights.
According to NASA, VERITAS will be able to find out if there are still plate tectonics and active volcanoes on Venus. The project will reveal more about Venus’ geological history, and try to answer the question of why Venus is so different from Earth.
The spacecraft will orbit the planet and map Venus in detail using state-of-the-art radar equipment. This should result in 3D maps of the surface.
An instrument must detect infrared radiation from different types of rocks, to find out what the surface is made of.
Researchers are also interested in what is below the surface. They will measure the varying strength of the gravitational field to get a picture of the structure inside Venus.
Eksoplaneter
In addition to learning more about Venus, the expeditions will have an impact on the understanding of exoplanets, the researchers believe. Exoplanets are planets outside our solar system.
If there were habitable conditions on Venus in the past, it could mean that similar planets are habitable today, says Giada Arney who works with DAVINCI +, in a press release.
Also read:
Luckily life on earth has survived
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