NASA’s DAVINCI mission will descend from the hellish atmosphere of Venus
NASA’s DAVINCI mission Venus will be launched in 2029. A new paper details this upcoming voyage, a daring mission that could shed new light on the hot planet’s mysterious, and possibly habitable, past.
Upon arrival at another planet from the Sun, the probe dumbbells through the atmosphere of Venus, taking its gases about an hour before landing on the planet’s surface, according to a paper published in The Planetary Science Journal. DAVINCI is designed to operate as a flying chemistry lab and will use its built-in equipment to analyze Venus’ atmosphere, temperature, pressure and wind speed, as well as take some photos of the planet’s journey through hell.
Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble Gases, Chemistry and Imaging In short, DAVINCI is one of the three upcoming expeditions planned for Venus, which will delight Venus scholars like me. And honestly, it’s been a long time coming. NASA’s Venus, Magellan’s last mission to the planet came in 1989 and completed science tasks in 1994. Since then, NASA has not sent a special Venus mission, although the planet is literally and figuratively very hot.
Why is NASA sending a mission to Venus?
Understanding Venus helps scientists get a better view of their own planet. This is how Venus and Earth must have started; Both planets have the same size, mass and density. But today, Venus spreads heat on Earth just like greenhouse gases, with temperatures reaching 880 degrees Fahrenheit (471 degrees Celsius), along with a carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere. It also boasts a fantastic volcanic landscape. Something must have happened in the early history of Venus to create such a cruel and hospitable situation, and its end to be very different from that of Earth.
“Venus’s atmosphere contains chemical signals to understand many aspects of the planet, including what its initial structure was and how its climate evolved over time,” said Paul Byrne, associate professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of Washington in St. Petersburg. Louis, who did not participate in the paper, wrote in an e-mail. In particular, the DAVINCI team hopes to establish whether Venus really had an ocean of liquid water in the past, and if so, when and why that ocean was destroyed.
How does DAVINCI measure the atmosphere of Venus?
To do that, DAVINCI will travel about 38 million miles (61 million kilometers) to Venus. The spacecraft will make two flybacks to the first planet, the first launch will be 6.5 months later. During these flights, the spacecraft will analyze the clouds of Venus and measure the amount of ultraviolet radiation absorbed by the daytime side of the planet, as well as the amount of heat emitted by Venus at night (Venus is not locked by the tide, but it is very slow. Rotation rate).
About two years after launch, the DAVINCI probe, known as the decent sphere, will descend from Venus’s atmosphere and sample various gases as it approaches the surface. The 3-foot-long (1-meter-long) probe will take an hour to descend, experiencing warmer temperatures and more pressure.
“It turns out that Venus’s atmosphere is relatively wide at 55 km [35 miles], but as you approach the surface, it gets hotter and denser faster,” Byrne said. “Nothing to say about the sulfuric acid clouds, although thankfully once we reach an altitude of about 47 km [29 miles] they disappear.”
Descent Sphere is equipped with five instruments designed to measure and analyze the chemistry and atmosphere of Venus’s atmosphere; These tools, hopefully, will paint a better, more in-depth picture of the layered environment. When the probe reaches an altitude of 75 miles (120 kilometers), it will begin its interaction with Venus’s upper atmosphere, and when it is 42 miles (67 kilometers) above the ground, it will emit its heat shield. The probe will attempt to capture hundreds of images as it plunges about 100,000 feet (30,500 meters) above the surface, beneath a thick layer of Venus clouds. Clouds of Venus cover the planet, covering its surface from view, so these images are set to give some unprecedented views.
In addition to drawing images of the planet, the decent sphere probe will breathe into some of its atmosphere. “The DAVINCI probe will have a small inlet on the outside of the pressure vessel (basically a large, metal sphere) through which atmospheric samples of different heights will be drawn into the spacecraft (or, indeed, will be pushed in as external pressure. .
