Back to Venus?
In the last few years, several NASA Venus missions have been proposed. The most recent planetary mission that NASA chose is a nuclear-powered craft called Dragonfly, destined for Saturn’s moon Titan. However, one proposal to measure the composition of the Venus surface was selected for further technology development.
Other missions being considered include one by the ESA to map the surface at high resolution, and a Russian plan to build on its legacy as the only country to successfully put a lander on Venus’ surface.
Some 30 years after NASA set course for our hellish neighbor, the future of Venus exploration looks promising. But a single mission – a radar orbiter or even a long-lived lander – won’t solve all the outstanding mysteries.
Rather, a sustained program of exploration is needed to bring our knowledge of Venus to where we understand it as well as Mars or the Moon. That will take time and money, but I believe it’s worth it. If we can understand why and when Venus came to be the way it is, we’ll have a better grasp of how an Earth-size world can evolve when it’s close to its star. And, under an ever-brightening Sun, Venus may even help us understand the fate of Earth itself.
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Paul K. Byrne, Assistant Professor of Planetary Geology, North Carolina State University
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