NASA's Venus Missions Back on Track After Cancellation Threat
NASA's two Venus missions, DAVINCI and VERITAS, are moving ahead despite earlier budget threats. DAVINCI is now set to launch in December 2030 and VERITAS in November 2032.
The US space agency NASA has confirmed that both of its Venus missions are advancing toward launches in the early 2030s. They would be the agency's first Venus missions since the Magellan orbiter, which launched in 1989. Scientists gave the update last week at a meeting of the Venus Exploration Analysis Group (VEXAG), a gathering of researchers who study the planet. Budget pressures had previously endangered one mission and delayed the other.
DAVINCI launch moved earlier
The DAVINCI mission will send a parachute-assisted probe through Venus's atmosphere and return the first direct images of the planet's surface since 1982. Launch is now planned for December 2030, a year earlier than before. Principal investigator Jim Garvin of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center said the date moved forward by 54 weeks thanks to a trajectory requiring relatively little energy. A flyby of Venus in early 2032 will set up the release of the atmospheric entry probe on October 3, 2032. According to Garvin, the new trajectory leaves enough fuel for the carrier spacecraft to enter orbit around Venus later.
The descent will take about an hour, and all data must be relayed to the carrier spacecraft before it passes over the horizon. The team recently finished experiments on how cameras and instruments will collect data during descent, as well as a heat test of a probe prototype, whose insulated sphere kept its internal temperature below 30°C (86°F).
VERITAS and Europe's Envision
VERITAS will map the Venusian surface by radar from orbit, focusing on regions with active volcanoes. Launch is planned for November 2032, with arrival in mid-2033. Dan Nunes, deputy project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said the mission is now funded and the team is staffing up. It had earlier come close to cancellation amid budget pressure.
Because of budget limits, NASA withdrew from an agreement to supply a radar to the European Space Agency's Envision orbiter, which is due to launch in 2032; Europe is building the radar itself. Funds freed up by that decision and by the cancellation of the Mars Sample Return mission allowed DAVINCI and VERITAS to move forward. Separately, the company Rocket Lab plans to launch a privately funded probe in late 2027 to look for signs of organic material in Venus's clouds.
