Space, the ESA also returns to Venus

It’s called EnVision and it will be the next orbiter that the European Space Agency will send to Venus. The satellite, explains ESA, “will provide a holistic view of the planet, from its inner core to the upper atmosphere, to determine how and why Venus and the Earth evolved so differently.” The mission was selected today by ESA’s Science Program Committee as the fifth middle-class mission under the Agency’s Cosmic Vision plan, with the aim of launching in the early years of the next decade. “A new era awaits us in exploring our closest, but extremely different, ‘neighbor’ in the solar system,” says Günther Hasinger, ESA’s Director of Science. “Added to NASA’s recently announced missions to Venus, we will have an extremely comprehensive science program on this enigmatic planet within the next decade,” Hasinger said. A key question in planetary science is why, despite being roughly the same size and composition, our “neighbor” in the inner Solar System has experienced such significant climate change: instead of being a habitable world like Earth, Venus has in fact a toxic atmosphere and is surrounded by thick clouds rich in sulfuric acid. There are many questions that scientists would like to clarify about the ‘twin’ planet of the Earth. Starting with what history has marked Venus to get to this state and whether this could foretell the fate of the Earth if it too were to suffer a disastrous greenhouse effect. But is Venus still geologically active? And could it have once hosted an ocean and even sustained life forms? What can be learned about the evolution of terrestrial planets in general as we discover more Earth-like exoplanets? These are the questions open to science. And EnVision’s innovative toolset will address these big issues. The satellite will be equipped with a range of instruments provided by Europe, including an echo sounder to reveal the stratification of the subsoil and spectrometers to study the atmosphere and the surface. The spectrometers, explains ESA on the official website, “will monitor the traces of gas in the atmosphere and analyze the composition of the surface, looking for any changes that could be linked to signs of active volcanism”. In addition, a radar provided by NASA will collect images and map the surface. In addition, the ESa continues, “an experiment based on radio science will probe the internal structure of the planet and the gravitational field, as well as investigate the structure and composition of the atmosphere. The instruments will work together to better characterize the interaction. between the different borders of the planet – from the inside, to the surface, to the atmosphere – providing a global vision of the planet and its processes “. EnVision follows the great success of ESA’s Venus Express mission that took place between 2005 and 2014 and focused mainly on atmospheric research, but which also led to incisive discoveries, pointing to possible volcanic hot spots on the planet’s surface. Jaxa’s Akatsuki spacecraft has also been studying Venus’ atmosphere since 2015. EnVision will significantly improve NASA’s Magellan radar images of the planet’s surface in the 1990s. Working together on NASA’s upcoming Davinci + (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging) and Veritas (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSar, Topography, and Spectroscopy) missions, the trio of new spacecraft will provide the most comprehensive study of Venus of all time, ESA experts assure.