NASA announces two new exploratory missions to Venus | Science and Ecology | DW

NASA announced on Wednesday (02/06/2021) that it will send two missions to Venus between 2028 and 2030, DaVinci + and Veritas, in order to continue exploration of this planet, where the US space agency has not been in the past. 30 years.

“These two sister missions aim to discover why Venus has turned into an infernal realm and provide an opportunity for the community to investigate a planet we haven’t visited in 30 years,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a letter.

Nelson explained that the DaVinci+ mission will look deep into the planet’s atmosphere, while Veritas will focus on the topography of Venus.

Specifically, one of Davinci+’s science goals will be, according to NASA, understanding the origin of Venus’s atmosphere, how it evolved, and how and why it differs from that of Earth and Mars.

In addition, this mission aims to provide details about the tectonic and volcanic history of the planet and to understand the history of water on Venus.

On the other hand, the VERITAS mission will orbit around Venus and explore the dark clouds on the planet using a sophisticated “robust” radar system to create 3D global maps and an infrared spectrometer to detect the components of the planet. the surface. It will also measure the planet’s gravitational field to determine the structure of the interior of Venus in order to provide a more complete idea of ​​the planet’s past and present geological processes, from its core to its surface.

Davinci+ and Veritas are part of NASA’s Discovery Program, which aims to give scientists the opportunity to develop planetary missions that delve deeper into the mysteries of the Solar System.

ee (efe/afp)