Nasa plans two new missions to Venus, its first in decades

(MENAFN - Gulf Times) The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) has announced plans to launch two new scientific missions to Venus between 2028 and 2030 – its first in decades – to study the atmosphere and geologic features of Earth’s so-called sister planet. The agency said it is awarding about $500mn for development of each of the two missions, dubbed DAVINCI+ (short for Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble Gases, Chemistry and Imaging) and VERITAS (an acronym for Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography and Spectroscopy). DAVINCI+ will measure the composition of the dense Venusian atmosphere, seeking to improve understanding of how it evolved, while VERITAS will map the planet’s surface from orbit to help determine its geological history and why it developed so differently than Earth, Nasa said. DAVINCI+, consisting of a fly-by spacecraft and an atmospheric descent probe, is also expected to return the first high-resolution images of unique geological characteristics on Venus called ''tesserae”. Scientists believe that those features may be comparable to Earth’s continents, and suggest that Venus has plate tectonics, according to US space agency’s announcement on Wednesday. Earth’s closest planetary neighbour and the second planet from the sun, Venus is similar in structure but slightly smaller than Earth, with a diameter of about 7,500 miles (12,000km). Above its foreboding landscape lies a thick, toxic atmosphere consisting primarily of carbon dioxide, with clouds of sulphuric acid droplets. The consequence is a runaway greenhouse effect that bakes the surface of Venus at temperatures as high as 880° Fahrenheit (471° Celsius), hot enough to melt lead. Venus has lately received less scientific attention than Mars, Earth’s next-closest planetary next-door neighbour, and other solar system destinations. ''We’re revving up our planetary science programme with intense exploration of a world that Nasa hasn’t visited in over 30 years,” Thomas Zurbuchen, Nasa’s associated administrator for science, said in a statement announcing the missions.MENAFN03062021000067011011ID1102207573