Get ready for an exciting journey to our neighboring planet, Venus, as we explore five incredible missions that could launch within the next decade! Venus, often referred to as Earth's 'evil twin,' has long captivated scientists and space enthusiasts alike. But here's where it gets controversial: despite its similarities in size, Venus has taken a vastly different path in its planetary evolution, and these missions aim to uncover why.
First, let's address the elephant in the room: Venus recently lost its last active spacecraft, Akatsuki, leaving the planet without any ongoing missions. However, the good news is that several new missions are in the works, and they promise to reveal fascinating insights about this enigmatic world.
NASA's DAVINCI Mission: Unveiling Venus' Secrets
DAVINCI, with a budget of $500 million, is set to launch in the early 2030s. This innovative mission combines an orbiter and a descent probe, offering a unique perspective on Venus. The orbiter will study Venus' clouds and mountains during two flybys, while the descent probe, a 3-foot-wide marvel, will brave the planet's harsh atmosphere and sulfuric acid-laden clouds, capturing images of the surface terrain along the way.
But that's not all; DAVINCI aims to achieve several groundbreaking firsts, including searching for traces of an ancient water cycle on Venus. The mission will focus on Alpha Regio, an ancient highland region, providing a glimpse into Venus' distant past.
Additionally, DAVINCI will chart the chemical composition of Venus' lower atmosphere, offering insights into how gases and compounds behave on the surface and potentially even beneath it. However, there's a catch: this mission is on the list of canceled projects in the Trump administration's 2026 NASA budget, leaving its future uncertain.
NASA's VERITAS Mission: Unraveling Earth's Twin
VERITAS, scheduled for launch no earlier than 2031, aims to understand why Venus and Earth, despite their similar sizes, have followed such divergent paths. The mission will delve into the disappearance of Venus' oceans and magnetic field and how plate tectonics shaped its terrain.
VERITAS, a half-billion-dollar endeavor, is based on the design of NASA's MAVEN spacecraft, currently orbiting Mars. The spacecraft will orbit Venus' poles, providing a comprehensive view of the entire planet. Initially, the orbit will be highly elliptical, lasting 120 hours, but a second engine burn will reduce the orbit to just 10 hours.
VERITAS will then employ a technique called 'aerobraking,' using the drag of Venus' upper atmosphere to lower its orbit, a process expected to take several months. This approach allows the spacecraft to carry less fuel, prioritizing mass for scientific instrumentation. Once complete, VERITAS will orbit Venus every 1.6 hours, conducting its mission for approximately 2.5 Earth years.
European Space Agency's Envision: Unlocking Venus' Origins
Envision, led by the European Space Agency (ESA), is scheduled to launch no earlier than November 2031. This €610 million mission will include a synthetic aperture radar from NASA and support from the American agency's Deep Space Network.
Envision will cruise to Venus for 15 months, then use aerobraking in the atmosphere for 11 months before reaching its science orbit, which will circle the planet in roughly 90 minutes. ESA believes this mission will shed light on the origins of habitability in the solar system, as Venus may have had a climate similar to Earth's for billions of years before a shift occurred.
The mission aims to spend four Earth years studying Venus from its subsurface to its upper atmosphere, uncovering its history and current climate and activity. The spacecraft will carry several instruments, including an S-band radar/microwave radiometer and altimeter to map the planet's surface, optical spectrometers to examine trace gases and the surface composition, a subsurface radar sounder, and a radio science experiment to study Venus' gravity field and atmospheric composition.
Rocket Lab's Venus Life Finder: Searching for Life's Building Blocks
Rocket Lab, in partnership with MIT, is preparing the first private mission to Venus. The Venus Life Finder mission will use Rocket Lab's Electron rocket and Photon spacecraft to orbit Venus approximately 30 miles above the surface. Originally scheduled for early 2025, the mission has been delayed and is now expected to launch in summer 2026.
With a reported cost of just $10 million, this mission is a testament to the power of private space exploration. The probe will descend into Venus' atmosphere, collecting data primarily at altitudes between 37 and 28 miles. This region is of particular interest due to suggestions of phosphine and its similarity to Earth's conditions.
During a brief science collection phase of only three to five minutes, the mission's laser science instrument will interact with cloud molecules, examining the scattered light for information about the molecules' size, shape, and concentration. If the molecules are organic, they may exhibit a unique glow, providing evidence of life's building blocks.
Indian Space Research Organisation's Venus Orbiter Mission: India's First Venus Venture
India plans to send its first mission to Venus no earlier than 2028, following a series of missions comparing planets in the solar system. The Venus Orbiter Mission, nicknamed Shukrayaan, has a budget of $147 million and aims to study Venus' surface, atmosphere, and solar interactions, also testing aerobraking in the atmosphere.
Some of the mission's science objectives include high-resolution mapping of the surface, examining dust and 'airglow' in the atmosphere, studying below the surface, and analyzing the X-ray spectrum of solar rays near the planet.
These five missions represent a significant step forward in our understanding of Venus, offering a glimpse into its past, present, and potential future. As we await their launch, the question remains: What secrets will these missions uncover about Earth's 'evil twin'? Join the discussion and share your thoughts in the comments!
