International – After decades of exploring other worlds, Aviation and Space Agency The US (National Aeronautics and Space Administration/NASA) is back on Venus, planet Earth’s closest, but perhaps most neglected neighbour.
director NASA, Bill Nelson, in his first major press conference on Wednesday (2/6) announced two new robotic missions to the hottest planet in the solar system.
“The two brothers’ missions were both aimed at understanding how Venus became a hell-like world capable of melting lead on the surface,” Nelson was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
One mission called DaVinci Plus will analyze Venus’ thick, cloudy atmosphere in an attempt to determine if the hellish planet once had an ocean and might be habitable. A small ship will plunge through the atmosphere to measure the gas.
The mission will be the first US-led mission into Venus’ atmosphere since 1978.
Another mission, called Veritas, will search for geological history by mapping the rocky planet’s surface.
“It’s surprising how little we know about Venus,” but the new mission will provide a fresh view of the planet’s atmosphere, which is composed mostly of carbon dioxide, down to its core, NASA scientist Tom Wagner said in a statement quoted by the Associated Press. “It will be as if we have rediscovered the planet.”
NASA’s top science officer, Thomas Zurbuchen, called it the “new decade of Venus.” Each mission — launching sometime between 2028 and 2030 — will receive $500 million for development under NASA’s Discovery program.
The mission beat out two other proposed projects, namely missions to Jupiter’s moon Io and to Neptune’s icy moon Triton.
The US and the former Soviet Union sent several space probes to Venus in the early days of space exploration. NASA’s Mariner 2 made its first successful flight in 1962, and the Soviet Venera 7 made its first successful landing in 1970.
In 1989, NASA used the space shuttle to send the Magellan spacecraft into orbit around Venus.
The European Space Agency placed a spacecraft around Venus in 2006. [na/ft]
By: VOA
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