This year’s Artemis II mission was special, breaking records, marking historic firsts and reigniting interest in space exploration for many who watched from the ground. But while many people are looking to the Moon and Mars, NASA is also planning to explore Venus in the coming years. Tentatively scheduled for 2030, the DAVINCI mission intends to study our closest planetary neighbor with flybys and an atmospheric probe that will collect information during its descent to the surface, marking the first landing on Venus since 1984.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the American and Soviet space programs sent probes to Venus with varying degrees of success. The Soviet Union’s Venera 13 mission holds the record for the longest time a probe was able to transmit data to Earth from the surface of Venus, 127 minutes after landing on March 1, 1982. That may not seem long, but it’s impressive considering it was only supposed to last half an hour.
Compared to Mars and the Moon, Venus is much more difficult to land on due to its extreme conditions. The planet’s thick atmosphere traps heat, causing the surface temperature to reach around 872 degrees Fahrenheit, enough to melt lead. Add to that an atmospheric pressure that is 93 times that of Earth at sea level, and you can see why two hours is a long time. While that’s not the real goal, DAVINCI could break that record while giving us new insight into Venus, often called Earth’s evil twin.
What past missions have revealed about Venus
The first successful mission to Venus was that of Mariner 2 in 1962, which gave humanity its first close-up glimpse of another planet. It also made it clear that Venus was not as much like Earth as philosophers, scientists, and authors had imagined due to its dense atmosphere and scorching heat. Two decades later, the Pioneer Venus mission discovered evidence that the planet may have contained liquid water hundreds of millions of years ago. This has led scientists to hypothesize that, despite its current state, Venus once had the conditions necessary to support life.
There have been other important missions, like Magellan, which created the first global map of Venus’ surface after arriving in 1990. Yet much of our knowledge about our planetary neighbor comes from data collected in the 1970s. Scientists have learned a lot from these observations, with recent studies finding possible evidence of life on Venus and evidence of active volcanoes. However, the lack of hard data makes it impossible to draw any real conclusions about how Venus formed and evolved over time.
What NASA hopes to learn from DAVINCI
Although the mission is also named after the Renaissance man, DAVINCI stands for Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging. It aims to study the planet in detail and will be the first mission to bring 21st century technology into Venus’ atmosphere. DAVINCI will be able to provide much higher quality images of the planet’s surface thanks to modern cameras and AI capable of sharpening images and creating 3D topographical maps with them.
One of DAVINCI’s main goals is to explore Venus’ unique terrain, including a mountainous area called Alpha Regio. The new, more detailed images will help scientists determine whether the planet has rocks that typically form because of water, giving us a better idea of its history and whether it ever had continents and oceans like Earth. Learning more about Venus can provide a better understanding of Venus-like exoplanets (those outside our solar system), including whether they could support life.
DAVINCI’s descent probe is designed to be more resilient, based on modern technology and things we didn’t know before about Venus. It will be equipped with better insulation to withstand high temperatures and a stronger, acid-resistant parachute that can slow the probe without dissolving in the atmosphere. These upgrades are intended to protect the equipment inside and not to keep DAVINCI on the ground for more than 20 minutes. Yet a Soviet probe from the 1980s lasted four times longer than expected before succumbing to the heat and pressure of Venus. It is therefore possible that DAVINCI will beat Venera 13’s record.
