NASA plans to launch two missions to Venus in eight years

NASA plans to launch two missions to Venus in about eight years. The aim is to discover how the planet has become uninhabitable, despite all its similarities with Earth.

Venus

Those missions are called Davinci+ and Veritas, NASA says. Davinci+ stands for Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging. The probe should measure the gases in the atmosphere and return high-resolution photos of the ‘tesserae’, possible tectonic plates like Earth’s continents.

The other mission is Veritas, Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy. That mission aims to map the surface of Venus. This is done, among other things, with a Synthetic Aperture Radar or SAR. Both are US-led missions, but Veritas also has European input. Among other things, the equipment comes from European organizations.

NASA has budgeted approximately 500 million euros for development for both missions. The launch of both missions is planned between 2028 and 2030. The last time an American mission went to Venus was in 1978. In the meantime, attention was paid to Mars, where various rovers drive around and send information back to Earth.