Get ready for an exciting journey as we explore the upcoming missions to Venus, Earth's enigmatic 'evil twin'!
Venus, the enigmatic planet, has recently lost its last active spacecraft, but the space community is already gearing up for more missions in the coming years. Here's a sneak peek at five proposed missions that could launch within the next decade, each with its own unique goals and potential impact on our understanding of this hellish yet fascinating world.
NASA's DAVINCI: Unveiling Venus' Ancient Secrets
DAVINCI, with a price tag of $500 million, is set to launch in the early 2030s. This innovative mission combines an orbiter and a descent probe, offering a dual perspective on Venus. The orbiter will study the planet's clouds and mountains during two flybys, while the descent probe, a 3-foot-wide marvel, will brave the punishing atmosphere and sulfuric acid clouds of Venus, capturing images of the surface terrain along the way.
One of DAVINCI's key objectives is to search for traces of an ancient water cycle on Venus, a potential game-changer in our understanding of the planet's history. The mission will focus on Alpha Regio, an ancient highland region that could provide insights into Venus' oldest surfaces. Additionally, DAVINCI will chart the chemical composition of Venus' lower atmosphere, offering a unique glimpse into how gases and compounds behave on and beneath the surface. However, there's a catch: DAVINCI is on the list of canceled missions in the Trump administration's 2026 NASA budget, leaving its future uncertain.
NASA's VERITAS: Unraveling the Mystery of Earth's Twin
VERITAS, scheduled for launch no earlier than 2031, aims to delve into the reasons behind the vast differences between Venus and Earth, despite their similar sizes. This mission seeks to understand how Venus lost its oceans and magnetic field and how plate tectonics shaped its terrain. VERITAS is designed based on NASA's MAVEN spacecraft, which has been orbiting Mars since 2014.
VERITAS will orbit Venus around its poles, allowing a comprehensive view of the entire planet. Initially, the orbit will be highly elliptical, lasting 120 hours, but a second engine burn will reduce this to a 10-hour orbit. The spacecraft will then employ 'aerobraking,' using the drag of Venus' upper atmosphere to lower its orbit, a process expected to take several months but will reduce the need for fuel, allowing more mass for scientific instruments. Once this procedure is complete, VERITAS will orbit Venus every 1.6 hours, with a mission duration of 2.5 Earth years.
European Space Agency's Envision: Exploring Venus' Habitability
Envision, led by the European Space Agency (ESA), is scheduled to launch no earlier than November 2031. This €610 million mission will include a synthetic aperture radar from NASA and support from the American agency's Deep Space Network. ESA officials have confirmed that NASA's contribution is under threat due to proposed budget cuts for fiscal year 2026.
Envision will take a 15-month cruise to Venus, followed by an 11-month aerobraking phase in the atmosphere before reaching its science orbit, which will circle Venus every 90 minutes. The mission's focus is on the origins of habitability in the solar system, as Venus may have had a climate similar to Earth's for billions of years before a shift occurred. Envision aims to spend four Earth years studying Venus from its subsurface to its upper atmosphere, uncovering its history and current climate and activity.
The Envision spacecraft will carry several instruments, including an S-band radar/microwave radiometer and altimeter to map the planet's surface, three optical spectrometers to examine trace gases and the surface composition, a subsurface radar sounder to explore up to 0.6 miles below the surface, and a radio science experiment to study Venus' gravity field and atmospheric composition and structure.
Rocket Lab's Venus Life Finder: Searching for Life's Building Blocks
Rocket Lab, in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is preparing the first private mission to Venus. The Venus Life Finder mission aims to use Rocket Lab's Electron rocket and Photon spacecraft to orbit Venus at an altitude of approximately 30 miles above the surface. Originally scheduled for early 2025, the mission has been delayed and is now expected to launch in the summer of 2026.
With a reported cost of just $10 million, the mission includes a probe that will descend into Venus' atmosphere, collecting data primarily at altitudes between 37 and 28 miles. This region is of interest due to suggestions of phosphine and the similarity of temperatures and pressures to those on Earth. During a brief science collection phase of only 3 to 5 minutes, the mission's laser science instrument will analyze cloud molecules in the atmosphere, searching for signs of organic molecules by examining the scattered light for information on molecule size, shape, and concentration.
Indian Space Research Organisation's Venus Orbiter Mission: India's First Mission to Venus
India plans to send its first mission to Venus no earlier than 2028, following a series of missions comparing planets in the solar system. The Venus Orbiter Mission, nicknamed Shukrayaan, is estimated to cost $147 million and has been delayed from its original 2023 launch date.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) highlights Venus' thick carbon dioxide atmosphere, high-pressure surface, and active ionosphere influenced by the solar wind as key areas of interest. The mission aims to study Venus' surface, atmosphere, and solar interactions and will also test aerobraking in the atmosphere. Some of the science objectives include high-resolution mapping of the surface, examining dust and 'airglow' in the atmosphere, studying the subsurface, and analyzing the X-ray spectrum of solar rays near the planet.
These upcoming missions to Venus offer a tantalizing glimpse into the future of space exploration. With each mission bringing its unique perspective and goals, we can expect a wealth of new knowledge about this enigmatic planet. But here's the controversial part: With budget constraints and political influences, will these missions see the light of day? And if they do, what groundbreaking discoveries might they unveil? Let's keep an eye on these developments and continue the conversation in the comments below!
