Author Topic: Visits to Venus  (Read 4821 times)

Offline redliox

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Visits to Venus
« on: 01/17/2017 08:10 pm »
Although Venus narrowly lost out in the 2015 Discovery selection, there are still a (small) handful of missions proposed to the sister planet.  Starting a thread specific to Venus, so do post about Venusian updates from Japan's current Akatsuki and any proposals for 21st century venture to Venus.

Currently there are 2 prime candidates for a return to Venus: Russia's Venera-D and NASA's VISE (Venus In Situ Explorer).  Venera-D is apparently still kicking around, with the possibility of joint operations between Russia and NASA (slowed by sanctions); Space.com did a recent article on their mission here: http://www.space.com/35333-russia-nasa-venus-mission-venera-d.html.  VISE is essentially a flagship mission, but elements of it could be adopted for New Frontiers.

Allegedly India was considering a Venus orbiter, but hasn't been officially funded and no doubt Mars will remain their target as with China.  ESA will probably only fleetingly visit Venus purely as flybs with BepiColombo and JUICE for gravity assists for the foreseeable future.  So it appears only Russia and the United States have dedicated interest in Venus, with Japan having the honor of the only current active probe studying Venus.

Again, do post any updates on the future of Venus (please minimize ranting on the 2015 Discover loss though).
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Offline Nordren

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Re: Visits to Venus
« Reply #1 on: 01/17/2017 08:17 pm »
China has unapproved plans for a Venus probe, launching around 2025-2030.

Offline redliox

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Re: Visits to Venus
« Reply #2 on: 01/17/2017 08:39 pm »
China has unapproved plans for a Venus probe, launching around 2025-2030.

Excellent!  Potentially an orbiter with balloon accord to the link.  Another item to keep an eye on!
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Offline johnxx9

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Re: Visits to Venus
« Reply #3 on: 01/18/2017 12:10 am »
Venus will most probably be the next interplanetary destination for India. This could come in 2022-23 time frame after the followup Mars mission in 2020.

But, I do believe the next missions to Venus will come from India or China. 

Offline TakeOff

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Re: Visits to Venus
« Reply #4 on: 01/18/2017 11:50 am »
NASA's Solar Probe Plus to be launched in July 2018 will make 7 flybys of Venus beginning 2 months after launch with the last one in October 2024. Each flyby will lower its Solar orbit. I'm not sure it will do any Venus science, since it is equipped to study the Sun. I suppose that at least the Solar environment at Venus will be better known.

Offline redliox

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Re: Visits to Venus
« Reply #5 on: 01/18/2017 02:40 pm »
NASA's Solar Probe Plus to be launched in July 2018 will make 7 flybys of Venus beginning 2 months after launch with the last one in October 2024. Each flyby will lower its Solar orbit. I'm not sure it will do any Venus science, since it is equipped to study the Sun. I suppose that at least the Solar environment at Venus will be better known.

Correct, and this is a problem with flybys: they're designed for specific targets in mind.  The only data the Solar Probe Plus could acquire at Venus would probably be particle and magnetic; ESA's JUICE mission could do better since it has instruments designed to study the Jovian atmosphere as well as the Galilean moons.
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Offline Blackstar

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Re: Visits to Venus
« Reply #6 on: 01/18/2017 02:52 pm »
NASA's Solar Probe Plus to be launched in July 2018 will make 7 flybys of Venus beginning 2 months after launch with the last one in October 2024. Each flyby will lower its Solar orbit. I'm not sure it will do any Venus science, since it is equipped to study the Sun. I suppose that at least the Solar environment at Venus will be better known.

Correct, and this is a problem with flybys: they're designed for specific targets in mind.  The only data the Solar Probe Plus could acquire at Venus would probably be particle and magnetic; ESA's JUICE mission could do better since it has instruments designed to study the Jovian atmosphere as well as the Galilean moons.

I vaguely remember hearing a presentation on SP+ in the past year where somebody asked about Venus science and was told that they will do some. But you are right that it is limited. My suspicion is that because of the type of instrumentation on SP+, the Venus science they will do will relate to how Venus interacts with the sun.

Offline vjkane

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Re: Visits to Venus
« Reply #7 on: 01/18/2017 03:26 pm »
I vaguely remember hearing a presentation on SP+ in the past year where somebody asked about Venus science and was told that they will do some. But you are right that it is limited. My suspicion is that because of the type of instrumentation on SP+, the Venus science they will do will relate to how Venus interacts with the sun.
There was a report done that looked at the science (limited as I recall) that the solar missions and Bepi-Colombo could conduct during their Venus flybys.  I can't find it now, but I'm sure it's out there.

Offline Blackstar

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Re: Visits to Venus
« Reply #8 on: 01/18/2017 04:21 pm »
I vaguely remember hearing a presentation on SP+ in the past year where somebody asked about Venus science and was told that they will do some. But you are right that it is limited. My suspicion is that because of the type of instrumentation on SP+, the Venus science they will do will relate to how Venus interacts with the sun.
There was a report done that looked at the science (limited as I recall) that the solar missions and Bepi-Colombo could conduct during their Venus flybys.  I can't find it now, but I'm sure it's out there.

That makes sense. Remembering a bit more now, one of the problems with doing this kind of stuff is that usually there is no specific funding for analysis. So you have SP+ doing some flybys of Venus, and the SP+ science team is funded to do analysis of the solar science. But even if they turn on the instruments when flying past Venus, there may not be money for any Venus scientists to analyze that data. So people have to scramble for that. It's not easy. And usually it is only an afterthought, because there are no Venus scientists on the original planning team.
« Last Edit: 01/18/2017 04:24 pm by Blackstar »

Offline Robotbeat

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Re: Visits to Venus
« Reply #9 on: 01/18/2017 05:17 pm »
Whitespace.
Chris  Whoever loves correction loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.

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Offline yg1968

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Re: Visits to Venus
« Reply #10 on: 04/19/2018 11:44 pm »
Here is a fantastic image of Venus by the Akatsuki spacecraft:

https://twitter.com/marsrader/status/987089572357079040

Offline spaceStalker

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Re: Visits to Venus
« Reply #11 on: 04/25/2018 08:56 pm »
It looks charming and welcoming...
« Last Edit: 04/25/2018 08:57 pm by spaceStalker »

 

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