NASA tweeted on June 5 in which it announced the two new missions it wanted to achieve. It basically wants to study the lost habitable world on Venus. According to NASA, our planetary neighbor is hot, hellish unforgiving world. Its toxic atmosphere and sweltering surface makes it a challenging place to study. It has been over 30 years since NASA last visited Venus - until now!
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| NASA's Tweet |
NASA is awarding approximately $500 million per mission for its development. The two mission decided are:
1. 1. DAVINCI+
Abbreviation: Deep
Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Nobel Gases, Chemistry and Imaging.
DAVINCI+ will measure the composition of the atmosphere of
Venus which will help in understanding the formation and evolution of the atmosphere.
This mission consists of a decent sphere that will plunge through its thick
atmosphere and help in making precise measurements about the noble gases it
contains and other elements in understanding why is this planet a runaway. DAVINCI+
will provide a high resolution imaging of the geographical features on the
neighboring planet. It will also help in determining whether the planet ever
had an ocean.
DAVINCI + will use the CUVIS (Compact Ultraviolet to Visible
Spectrometer). CUVIS will accomplish high resolution ultraviolet light measurements
using a new instrument.
2. 2. VERITAS
Abbreviation:
Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography and Spectroscopy
VERITAS will map the infrared emissions from Venus’s surface
to understand the geologic history and the planet’s rock type. It will help creating
3D reconstructions of the topography in order to confirm the processes whether
the plate tectonics and volcanoes are active on Venus. It will also help in
understanding why Venus is developed differently from our planet, Earth.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California provides
project management. The infrared mapper will be provided by German Aerospace
Center with the Italian Space Agency and the French National Center for Space
Studies contributing to the radar and other parts of the mission.
VERITAS will use the Deep Space Atomic Clock-2 which was built
by JPL. It is the ultra-accurate clock signal generated with this technology which
will eventually help in enabling autonomous spacecraft maneuvers and improve
radio scientific observations.
Basically the goal of these missions is to study the world
of Venus that how it can have similar characteristics with our planet. Also, Venus
has received less scientific attention lately than Mars, Earth's closest
planetary neighbor, and other destinations in the solar system.
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