Part of: GS Prelims and GS -III – Sci and tech; Space
In news
NASA has selected two missions to the planet Venus.
Details about the missions
The missions are called DAVINCI+ and VERITAS
These will be launched between 2028 and 2030.
DAVINCI+ is ‘Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging’
It is the first US-led mission to the planet’s atmosphere since 1978.
It will try to understand Venus’ composition to see how the planet formed and evolved.
It also consists of a descent sphere that will pass through the planet’s thick atmosphere and make observations and take measurements of noble gases and other elements.
It will also try to return the first high resolution photographs of a geological feature, tesserae, that is unique to Venus. The presence of tesseraes may suggest that Venus has tectonic plates like Earth.
The second mission called VERITAS is ‘Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy’
It will map the planet’s surface to determine its geologic history and understand the reasons why it developed so differently from Earth.
