NASA Announces Two Missions To Venus

NASA will send two new missions to Venus to analyse the planet’s atmosphere and map its surface. They are expected to be launched between 2028 and 2030 and each mission will get a funding of $500 million. The missions would offer the “chance to investigate a planet we haven’t been to in more than 30 years”, said NASA administrator Bill Nelson. The last U.S. probe to Venus, the hottest planet in the solar system, was in 1990.

The first of the two missions—Davinci+ (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging) —will measure the planet’s atmosphere to gain insight into its formation and how it evolved.

The second mission—Veritas (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy)—will map the planet’s surface to understand its geological history and investigate how it developed so differently than Earth.