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In fact, it’s hard to understand why NASA hasn’t been so eager to return to Venus for so long. It is true that Venus has always been hard to explore because of its hostile environment. The surface temperature is between 471 ° C (heat enough to melt lead) and the ambient pressures are 89 times higher than the Earth’s. The atmosphere is 96% carbon dioxide. And the planet is covered in thick clouds of sulfuric acid. When the Soviet Union landed the 13th Venera probe in 1982, it lasted 127 minutes before it was destroyed.
However, we know that the conditions there were not always so harsh! It is known that Venus and Earth are similar to worlds with similar masses and both live in the habitable zone of the sun (in the region where liquid water is present on the surface of the planet). But only the Earth became viable, while Venus became the landscape of hell. Scientists want to know why. These new missions, says Byrne, “will help us basically why isn’t our twin planet our twin?”
Over the past year, another huge development has prompted NASA to take Venus exploration more seriously: the chance to find life. In September 2020, scientists announced that they had potentially discovered phosphine gas — obviously produced by biological life — in the Venusian atmosphere. These findings were studied tremendously in the following months, and it is now not very clear whether the phosphine readings were true. But all the excitement sparked controversy, saying that finding underground life might have been possible on Venus. This fascinating new approach put Venus in the head of the public (and possibly in the head of the legislators who support NASA’s budget).
The selection of the two new missions is a very clear statement for NASA to tell the Venus community, “We see you, we know you’ve been abandoned and we’ll do that,” says Stephen Kane, an astronomer at the University of California, Riverside. “It’s a great moment.”
DAVINCI + is short for Deep Atmosphere Venus Noble Gas Research, Chemistry and Images Plus. Venus is a spaceship that will immerse itself in the dense, warm atmosphere and descend to the surface of the parachute. In the 63-minute drop, he will use a variety of spectrometers to study the chemistry and composition of the atmosphere. It will also represent the landscape of Venus to better understand its crust and earth (and if successful, it would be the first probe to take the planet out of the fall).
VERITAS, short for Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography and Spectroscopy, is another orbit designed for safer distance research. It would use near-radar and infrared spectroscopy to look under the thick clouds of the planet and observe the geology and topography of its surface.
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