NASA wants you to get thrilled about the nightmarish world right next door. NASA stated this spring that it would create two new missions to investigate Venus in the early 2030s. One, designated VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy), would circle the planet, gazing through its thick clouds. The other, named DAVINCI (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging), would go a step farther, plunging a high-tech probe into Venus’s caustic atmosphere. NASA has now published a new film detailing the DAVINCI mission and the science it will do on our twin planet.
Venus is waiting for us all, and DAVINCI is ready to take us there and kickstart a new Venus renaissance, says narrator Giada Arney, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
ACCORDING TO THE VIDEO, the DAVINCI mission, which is set to launch in 2029, is divided into two halves. First, the primary spacecraft will undertake two flybys of the planet to examine its atmosphere and nightside surface. The spacecraft’s atmospheric research will center on watching how clouds develop over time and seeking to discover a mystery substance that curiously absorbs UV light.
Meanwhile, the nighttime effort will scan the surface in infrared light as the granite releases its absorbed heat throughout the long night. Scientists think that the data may aid in their understanding of how the planet’s unique highlands evolved.
The goal is to learn about the planet’s geological past and why it evolved so differently from Earth. It might also determine whether or not volcanoes and earthquakes still occur on Venus. However, DAVINCI+ (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble Gases, Chemistry, and Imaging) will go one step farther by landing on the hothouse planet. The high-tech probe will study the planet’s caustic atmosphere as it descends to the surface to learn more about its creation and development.
Seven months after the first contact, the probe will perform a one-hour drive through the clouds, transmitting back data the whole time. The examination will detect the composition, temperatures, pressures, and winds present at each layer of Venus’s atmosphere while the main spacecraft observes.
Scientists believe that all of this information will help scientists better comprehend the planet now and piece together its past, specifically if the Earth originally had water. It will also attempt to ascertain whether Venus, the hottest planet in the solar system with a surface temperature of 900°F, ever had an ocean.
When the probe reaches the surface, it will take high-resolution photographs of a location known as Alpha Regio Tesserae. The character of Venus is covered with tesserae, which are areas of rock that have repeatedly shattered and bent in a way that occurs only deep below the Earth’s crust. Scientists think that by better comprehending the tesserae and how they wound thereon Venus’ surface, they will put together the planet’s past.
Overall, the probe will show people what it’s like to stand on the surface of Venus, according to Arney. The results of this broad data collection will reveal if Venus was genuinely livable.
