NASA is planning to head towards Venus with two missions

Credits: GSFC/NASA

NASA's next two missions, DAVINCI+ and VERITAS are planned to be launched towards Venus to study Venus, so how it became the world it is today.

Bill Nelson announced this at a news conference. ” Nelson said. “We hope these missions will further our understanding of how Earth evolved and why it’s currently habitable when others in our solar system are not.” said Nelson.

DAVINCI+ will measure the composition of Venus's atmosphere to study how it formed and evolved. It will also plunge through Venus's dense atmosphere to make precise measurements of noble gases and other elements and send high-resolution pictures of Venus's geological features. It will be the first mission to send a probe into the thick atmosphere, the probe will a ball, a meter in diameter, which will take measurements on its way down to the surface.

Credits: NASA/GSFC 

VERITAS will orbit Venus to map Venus's surface to determine its geological history, creating a 3D reconstruction of topography and look for tectonic and volcanic activity on Venus. It will also map out its rock types. 

Credits: L JPL-CALTECH/NASA

“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 associate administrator for science. “Using cutting-edge technologies that NASA has developed and refined over many years of missions and technology programs, we’re ushering in a new decade of Venus to understand how an Earth-like planet can become a hothouse. 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 research for NASA.”

These two missions were chosen from four finalists, two-headed to Venus, one to Jupiter's moon, Io, the mission was named IVO (Io Volcanic Observer), which would study the tidal forces, and the moon's volcanic activity, and one to Neptune's largest moon Triton, named TRIDENT, which would explore Triton, to understand habitable worlds which are away from the Sun. They picked the Venus mission back in February 2020, as part of the agency's Discovery 2019 competition. 

DAVINCI+ and VERITAS are expected to be launched in 2028-2030, and NASA will be awarding approximately $500 million per mission for development.

Press Release