ExtremeTech
NASA Will Send 2 Probes to Venus for the First Time in Decades By Joel Hruska on June 4, 2021 at 7:30 am
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NASA has announced the winner of a competition to determine targets for a new round of exploration missions. The space exploration agency has opted for a pair of missions to Venus, the first for NASA in over 30 years. These missions were launched as part of NASA’s Discovery Program, which funds small-scale space programs of $500M or less per launch.
The two probes, DAVINCI+ and VERITAS, will return new data on the evolution and current structures of the second planet from the sun. Both are acronyms: DAVINCI+ stands for Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging, Plus, while VERITAS stands for Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy.
NASA has approved two new missions to study venus, the VERITAS radar mapper, left, and the DAVINCI+ atmospheric probe. Image: Lockheed Martin
Three decades after NASA’s Magellan mission came to an end, the U.S. space agency is returning to cloud-shrouded Venus with two cost-capped Discovery-class missions, one to map the world with a cloud-penetrating radar and another that will plunge into the atmosphere for a dramatic hourlong descent to study its chemical composition.
The missions will be funded at $500 million each and both are expected to launch in the 2028-2030 timeframe.
“We’re revving up our planetary science program with intense exploration of a world that NASA hasn’t visited in over 30 years,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s director of space science. “Our goals are profound. It is not just understanding the evolution of planets and habitability in our own solar system, but extending beyond these boundaries to exoplanets, an exciting and emerging area of rese