NASA Announces Two New Missions To Venus; Liftoff Expected In 2028

NASA has several missions lined up, including the ambitious Artemis mission to the Moon and the mission to Mars. The space agency has now announced two new missions to Venus, Earth's nearest neighbor. The missions, called DAVINCI+ and VERITAS, have been scheduled to lift off some time in 2028-2030 and have a budget of around USD 500 million each.

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NASA Mission To Venus

Venus is the closest planet to Earth, yet, we haven't tried to visit it so far. Venus has one of the harshest environments and even the space probes sent to the planet haven't survived for long. Several spacecraft from various countries, including the Soviet Union's Venera series have visited Venus, but haven't sustained for long.

Simply put, the hard environment and the high surface temperature simply overheat the components on a spaceship, which makes exploration quite difficult. Presently, Japan's Akatsuki mission is studying the planet from Orbit. Now, NASA is set to join the list once again after its initial Magellan Mission to Venus back in 1990.

LIVE: We're going to Venus with two bold new @NASASolarSystem missions, DAVINCI+ and VERITAS! On today's #ScienceLive, hear directly from the mission leads about exploring this inferno-like world. Questions? Use #AskNASA: https://t.co/kvMk9WtXsc

— NASA (@NASA) June 3, 2021

NASA DAVINCI+, VERITAS Missions To Venus

The newly announced Venus missions are part of the NASA Discovery Program that was announced in 1992. To note, the mission proposals were submitted back in 2019 and are part of the ninth Discovery Program, which aims to explore space with fewer resources and have shorter developmental times.

Going into the details, the first mission called DAVINCI+ expands to Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging. The primary objective of the DAVINCI+ mission is to understand how Venus was formed and how it evolved. The mission will pack a decent sphere to pass through the planet's thick atmosphere to make observations and take measurements of noble gases and other elements.

More importantly, the NASA DAVINCI+ mission to Venus will also send back the first high-resolution photos of Venus' geological features. Venus is believed to have 'tesserae', which is similar to Earth's continents and hints at the possibility of having tectonic plates.

NASA VERITAS Mission To Venus

The other mission to Venus is called VERITAS, which expands to Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy. The main objective here is to map Venus' surface to understand its geological past. The idea is to understand why Venus developed differently from Earth.

The VERITAS mission will orbit the planet with radar. This helps to create a 3D reconstruction of the topography to help scientists discover processes such as plate tectonics and volcanism are still active on Venus. The mission will also try to discover if the volcanoes are releasing water vapor; the different types of rocks on the planet; emissions from Venus' surface, and more.

NASA Plans To Study Venus

Both DAVINCI+ and VERITAS missions to Venus aim to provide a better understanding of the planet's construction and why it's so different from Earth. Ultimately, NASA also aims to find if life ever existed on the planet, even if it's in the distant past. Venus is Earth's closest neighbor, and it is only now that we're hoping to have a better understanding of it.