EnVision Mission

In News

Recently, the European Space Agency (ESA) has selected EnVision as its next orbiter that will visit Venus . 

• Earlier, NASA selected two missions to the planet Venus.
  • The missions called DAVINCI+ and VERITAS have been selected based on their potential for scientific value and the feasibility of their development plans.

About the Mission 

• EnVision is an ESA led mission with contributions from NASA. It is likely to be launched sometime in the 2030s. 
  • The earliest launch opportunity for EnVision is 2031, followed by 2032 and 2033.
• It will be launched on an Ariane 6 rocket and  the spacecraft will take about 15 months to reach Venus and will take 16 more months to achieve orbit circularisation.
• The spacecraft will carry a range of instruments to study the planet’s atmosphere and surface, monitor trace gases in the atmosphere and analyse its surface composition. 
• A radar provided by NASA will help to image and map the surface.
• EnVision will follow another ESA-led mission to Venus called ‘Venus Express’ (2005-2014) that focussed on atmospheric research and pointed to volcanic hotspots on the planet’s surface. 
  • Other than this, Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft has also been studying the planet’s atmosphere since 2015.

Significance of Studying Venus 

• At the core of the ESA’s mission is the question of how Earth and Venus evolved so differently from each other considering that they are roughly of the same size and composition.
• Scientists speculate about the existence of life on Venus in its distant past and the possibility that life may exist in the top layers of its clouds where temperatures are less extreme.
  • In 2020, a team of scientists reported that they had found phosphine gas (a chemical produced only through biological processes) in the atmosphere of Venus that triggered excitement in the scientific community that some life forms might be supported by the planet.
  • But the existence of life on the planet is nearly impossible given the high temperatures of Venus and its acidic atmosphere. 
  • Even so, this discovery could mean that life forms could have existed on Venus before when it was habitable. As per this theory, the discovery of phosphine could simply be remnants from the past.

Source :IE