NASA Gets a Billion Dollars to Probe Venus Again
NASA Gets a Billion Dollars to Probe Venus Again

WASHINGTON — America's national debt is currently climbing past 28 trillion dollars, and the White House is asking for 6 trillion dollars more for its federal spending bill.

This bill would give NASA a total of 24.8 billion dollars, making it the largest budget request for NASA science, ever.

NASA says it will use 1 billion dollars to send two missions to check out Venus.

Here are the details: The BBC reports that NASA has announced it is sending two new missions to Venus in order to examine the planet's atmosphere and geological features.

The missions, which have each been awarded half a billion dollars in funding by the Biden administration, are due to launch between 2028 and 2030.

The last probe to visit the planet was the Magellan orbiter in 1990.

However, other vessels have made fly-bys since then.

Venus is the second planet from the sun and the hottest planet in the solar system, with a surface temperature of 500 degrees Celsius — hot enough to melt lead.

The Davinci+ mission will measure the planet's atmosphere to gain insight into how it formed and evolved.

It will also aim to determine whether Venus ever had an ocean.

The second mission, called Veritas, will map the planet's surface to understand its geologic history, and investigate how it developed so differently from Earth.

It will use a form of radar to chart surface elevations and to find out whether volcanoes and earthquakes are still happening.

NASA administrator Bill Nelson said the missions would offer the "chance to investigate a planet we haven't been to in more than 30 years".