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Robotic Spacecraft (Astronomy, Planetary, Earth, Solar/Heliophysics) => Space Science Coverage => Topic started by: sanman on 11/11/2018 08:53 pm
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Now that ISRO is planning a Venus mission (proposed launch date 2023), what are the main objectives that are hoped to be accomplished?
https://www.thesciencebeyond.com/venus-orbiter-mission-isro/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shukrayaan-1
Will this be a technology demonstrator mission, or will some substantive scientific work be carried out? What new information may be uncovered through such a mission?
Which launch vehicle will likely be used for this mission to the planet Venus?
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What a surprise that India is planning a Venus mission in 2023 when the Chinese have already announced that their first mission to the planet is scheduled for 2024.
The nominal launch windows are June 2023 and December 2024-January 2025.
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Gee, I'd no idea they were also doing one - is there a thread for that? I seriously doubt ISRO would be looking to match China's moves on Venus - Moon and Mars yes, but Venus just doesn't seem that important for space colonization. Late Indian president Dr Abdul Kalam said the Earth, Moon and Mars were naturally a single industrial complex, but Venus doesn't seem to have the same potential. Elon Musk calls Mars a "fixer upper" planet, but Venus is a much harder case to make. Venus doesn't capture popular imagination nearly as much as Mars does. So a Venus mission seems to only be useful for gathering scientific data on the place. Notice that MOM-2 is scheduled ahead of Shukrayaan.
But as per the 2nd link above, there was speculation on whether this mission might involve aerocapture, because of input from Jacques Blamont of CNES. Perhaps aerocapture seems too ambitious for a first mission, and would be suitable for some follow-on mission. It does seem noteworthy that ISRO scaled back its original payload requirement from 175kg to 100kg. Are they looking to allocate payload mass for something else? If Dr Kalam were alive, he'd definitely be advocating some kind of impactor probe, because if you're taking all that trouble to go there, then you might as well touch the planet itself.
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What a surprise that India is planning a Venus mission in 2023 when the Chinese have already announced that their first mission to the planet is scheduled for 2024.
The nominal launch windows are June 2023 and December 2024-January 2025.
ISRO originally planned their venus mission for 2015. The 2023 date is only a result of delays and poor funding nothing more. We are not in a race with anyone.
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What a surprise that India is planning a Venus mission in 2023 when the Chinese have already announced that their first mission to the planet is scheduled for 2024.
There is no surprise. India has been planning a Venus mission since 2012.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/India-planning-Venus-mission/articleshow/11920410.cms?referral=PM
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ISRO originally planned their venus mission for 2015. The 2023 date is only a result of delays and poor funding nothing more. We are not in a race with anyone.
Well said. ISRO/India doesn't see space as a boxing ring or a racetrack. India doesn't( at the very least, would rather not) see any industry or science that way. India will promote and defend its specific interests in an ethical and practical manner, that's all.
Indulging a bit..India's space programme has always been a very civilian controlled and civilian oriented one. The idea is to employ space tech for infrastructural( telecom, I&B etc) meterological and scientific purposes. The military and strategic dimensions came much later, and are a small part of the enterprise. The other major space programmes originated in military and geo-strategic compulsions, and in the desire for prestige. China has been for many years, trying to show how great and mighty it is with its space programme, ISRO should never get into that bombastic pomposity.
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As with Chandrayaan-1, ISRO is inviting international payloads for this Venus mission:
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/isro-plans-venus-mission-for-2023-invites-international-payloads/story-nlAa8f9A0i1ZpJs4kETSdO.html
India will send 12 scientific payloads aboard the satellite for the Venus mission, including a thermal camera, mass spectrometer and cloud monitoring camera. The final spacecraft is likely to have a payload capacity of close to 100 kg, with 500W of power, according to the Isro website.The satellite is likely to be launched into a highly-inclined orbit of 500x60,000 km around Venus. The apoapsis, or the point when the satellite is furthest away from Venus, will gradually reduce over several months. Venus is considered to be Earth’s “twin sister” because of similarities in size, mass, density, composition and gravity. The mission will focus on studying the surface and the sub-surface of the planet, atmospheric chemistry, and the interactions with solar radiation or solar winds.
The figure of 500 W seems a bit low, doesn't it? After all, there's quite a lot of solar flux to be had around Venus.
Is there any reason to believe that the solar power system would be smaller for this Shukrayaan/Venus mission than it was for the Mangalyaan/Mars orbiter?
But so once again, it seems like the probe will go for a highly elongated elliptical orbit to get in around Venus. Will this maneuver be less of a nail-biter than the Mars one?
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ISRO may be planning a balloon mission on its maiden voyage to Venus:
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/11/india-seeks-collaborators-mission-venus-neglected-planet
India seeks collaborators for a mission to Venus, the neglected planet
By Pallava BaglaNov. 21, 2018 , 3:30 PM
NEW DELHI—The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in Bengaluru will send an orbiter to Venus in 2023 and has invited scientists from around the world to submit proposals for instruments to carry along. The plan, which will include a balloon dropped into the planet’s atmosphere, has received a warm welcome from Venus scientists, many of whom feel that, compared with the moon and Mars, their planet has received short shrift in the past 2 decades.
The as-yet-unnamed spacecraft is likely to weigh 2500 kilograms and may have a 100-kilogram payload; it will be launched on India’s heaviest rocket, the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III. The orbiter will initially be placed in a large elliptical orbit around Venus that is gradually shrunk.
Like Earth, Venus is some 4.5 billion years old; the planets are of similar size and mass. But Venus has witnessed a runaway greenhouse phenomenon, leading to a dense, carbon dioxide–rich atmosphere that may offer scientists clues about the development of Earth’s atmosphere. “Planetary comparative climatology is an area of continued interest and research. The opportunity to explore Venus together is welcome,” says Lori Glaze, acting head of NASA’s planetary science division in Washington, D.C.
Venus is a hostile planet to study: Its thick clouds make research from an orbiter difficult, while heat, high pressure, and sulfuric acid droplets make descending to the surface a technological nightmare. Of the more than 40 Venus missions so far, roughly half have failed, and only a handful spacecraft have touched down on the planet’s surface.
That’s why the crowd gathered at a meeting of NASA’s Venus Exploration Analysis Group in Laurel, Maryland, was “very excited” to hear India’s call for collaboration on 6 November, says Patrick McGovern of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas. “In the absence of new Venus missions and data, it is increasingly difficult to generate support for students and early-career researchers interested in Venus,” he says. That keeps the Venus community small, which “in turn affects the ability to rally support for new missions,” McGovern says. “In my view we are presently at the reconnaissance stage of [Venus] exploration, equivalent to that of pre-1997 Mars.”
“Planetary exploration should be all about global partnerships,” says Indian Space Research Organisation chair Kailasavadivoo Sivan.
ISRO has already selected 12 instruments, proposed by Indian scientists, including cameras and chemical analyzers to study the atmosphere. Now, it’s hoping other scientists will join. “Planetary exploration should be all about global partnerships,” says Kailasavadivoo Sivan, a rocket scientist and ISRO’s chair. (The deadline for submitting proposals is 20 December.)
McGovern hopes to send a radar instrument that could penetrate the thick clouds and make sharper maps of the surface, which could help address questions remaining after NASA’s 1989 Magellan mission to Venus. Planetary scientist Larry Esposito of the University of Colorado in Boulder says he’d like to contribute instruments that would study the planet’s atmosphere. He’s particularly interested in Venus’s clouds and how they could be responding to possible ongoing volcanic eruptions. “The past ISRO missions provide confidence,” Esposito says. (India visited the moon in 2008 and Mars in 2014; it has another moon mission scheduled next year and a new visit to Mars in 2022.)
Astrophysicist Jacques Blamont, a former head of France’s National Center for Space Studies in Paris, several years ago proposed producing metallic balloons that could dip in and out of Venus’s hot atmosphere to study its chemistry. ISRO has adopted that idea, says Sivan, but will develop the balloon in-house. It will carry 10 kilograms of instruments and float down to 55 kilometers above the surface.
So it seems like a balloon mission is on the cards. That sounds like something interesting and novel - has anybody attempted anything like this before?
Should ISRO be attempting something this ambitious on their first trip to Venus?
On the other hand, people here have in the past said that Venus aerocapture is relatively straightforward.
How long could a mylar balloon last, while supporting a ~10kg instrument payload?
It sounds like it would be cycling up and down as it alternately gets heated and then cooled.
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So it seems like a balloon mission is on the cards? That sounds like something interesting and novel - has anybody attempted anything like this before?
The first balloons were deployed in the venerian atmosphere by the Soviet VEGA missions in 1985.
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The first balloons were deployed in the venerian atmosphere by the Soviet VEGA missions in 1985.
Ah, that's right - thank you for that - these were the twin Vega spacecraft missions that Prof Blamont was involved with:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega_program
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/Russian_%22Vega%22_balloon_mission_to_Venus_on_display_at_the_Udvar-Hazy_museum.jpg/220px-Russian_%22Vega%22_balloon_mission_to_Venus_on_display_at_the_Udvar-Hazy_museum.jpg)
The two balloon aerobots were designed to float at 54 km from the surface, in the most active layer of the Venusian cloud system. The instrument pack had enough battery power for sixty hours of operation and measured temperature, pressure, wind speed and aerosol density. The balloon envelopes were surfaced with polytetrafluoroethylene to resist attack by the corrosive atmosphere. Both Vega-1 and Vega-2 balloons operated for more than 46 hrs from injection to the final transmission.[1]
The balloons were spherical superpressure types with a diameter of 3.54 metres (11.6 ft) and filled with helium. A gondola assembly weighing 6.9 kilograms (15.2 pounds) and 1.3 meters (4.26 ft) long was connected to the balloon envelope by a tether 13 metres (42.6 ft) long. Total mass of the entire assembly was 21 kilograms (46 pounds).
The top section of the gondola assembly was capped by a conical antenna 37 centimetres (14.6 inches) tall and 13 centimetres (5 1⁄8 inches) wide at the base. Beneath the antenna was a module containing the radio transmitter and system control electronics. The lower section of the gondola assembly carried the instrument payload and batteries.
The instruments consisted of:
An arm carrying thin-film resistance thermometers and a velocity anemometer. The anemometer consisted of a free-spinning plastic propeller whose spin was measured by LED-photodetector optointerrupters.
A module containing a PIN diode photodetector to measure light levels and a vibrating quartz beam pressure sensor.
A package at the bottom carrying the batteries and a nephelometer to measure cloud density through light reflection.
The small low-power transmitter only allowed a data transmission rate of 2,048 bits/sec, though the system performed data compression to squeeze more information through the narrow bandwidth. Nonetheless, the sampling rate for most of the instruments was only once every 75 seconds. The balloons were tracked by two networks of 20 radio telescopes in total back on Earth: the Soviet network, coordinated by the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union and the international network, coordinated by Centre national d'études spatiales of France (CNES).
The balloons were dropped onto the planet's darkside and deployed at an altitude of about 50 kilometres (31 mi). They then floated upward a few kilometres to their equilibrium altitude. At this altitude, pressure and temperature conditions of Venus are similar to those of Earth, though the planet's winds moved at hurricane velocity and the carbon dioxide atmosphere is laced with sulfuric acid, along with smaller concentrations of hydrochloric and hydrofluoric acid.
The balloons moved swiftly across the night side of the planet into the light side, where their batteries finally ran down and contact was lost. Tracking indicated that the motion of the balloons included a surprising vertical component, revealing vertical motions of air masses that had not been detected by earlier probe missions.
So the balloons used for Vega were not metallic-coated/mylar type, and did not do any up-and-down cycling.
If another new balloon mission were to be done, would the balloon just end up being whipped around to the night side and get frozen there? Is it possible to design a photo-voltaic balloon for this mission that would somehow last longer?
http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2008/09/Wind_circulation_on_Venus
(http://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2008/09/wind_circulation_on_venus/9834587-3-eng-GB/Wind_circulation_on_Venus_node_full_image_2.gif)
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Just pondering the balloon instrument power issue some more. Maybe the mylar balloon could be coated with thin-film photovoltaics to generate power from the famously strong solar flux in the skies above Venus?
Or if photovoltaics aren't possible for the balloon package, could a rectenna be used to receive power beamed down from the orbiter itself?
Or, if the balloon is able to make use of liquid-gas phase transitions, could that somehow be used to generate electrical power, perhaps via a tiny micro-turbine?
Saw some commentary here about some proposed missions:
https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/14091/how-long-would-a-blimp-last-in-venusian-atmosphere-at-an-altitude-of-65-km
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Amazing report about the future missions to Venus in the next decade...
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01730-5
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Cross-post:
During IAC2019 in Washington DC I spoke with S Somanath (Director of VSSC) and R Umamaheswaran (Scientific Secretary) from ISRO on Thursday 24th October.
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The 50 min audio interview is available here https://astrotalkuk.org/?p=5703
<snip>
- Shukrayaan-1 (Venus mission) still targeted for 2023.
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ISRO to launch its Venus mission in 2025
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/schools/isro-to-launch-its-venus-mission-in-2025-148979
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Slide from the webinar ′Franco-Indian space cooperation, history and perspectives′, launch date indicated — Dec 2024
https://twitter.com/Astro_Danyboy/status/1324062302191210498
Rouquette: provision of operational support skills for the management of operations (monitoring of operations, psychology and emergencies). Several visits to Cadmos planned in the program.
Pierre Bousquet: the ISRO roadmap is completely logical in the exploration of the solar system: Moon, Mars: now Venus with the Shukrayaan mission, and CNES is a partner with the detector for the on-board IR spectrometer with the IKI . Mission scheduled for 2024.
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India’s Shukrayaan orbiter to study Venus for over four years, launches in 2024 (https://spacenews.com/indias-shukrayaan-orbiter-to-study-venus-for-over-four-years-launches-in-2024/), SN, November 19
Shukrayaan will be the first mission to map Venus’ subsurface
MUMBAI, India — India’s space agency aims to launch its Venus orbiter Shukrayaan in late 2024, more than a year later than previously planned, an ISRO research scientist told a NASA-chartered planetary science planning committee Nov. 10.
T. Maria Antonita of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) detailed the status of the mission to scientists drafting a new 10-year plan for NASA’s planetary science program. Shukrayaan will be India’s first mission to Venus and will study the planet for more than four years.
[zubenelgenubi: Full copy/paste, almost full copy/paste, or extensive quotation, of copyrighted material (such as this magazine article) is prohibited. Short quotes are ok.
Senior members should know this.]
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Very belated cross-post:
YouTube presentation dated August 3, 2020
YT link in the original post
Relevant slide attached
"An Evening with Dr. S. Somanath, Director, VSSC, Trivandrum"
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so cool, I didn't know anything about this.
Does anyone know where they are in mission formulation?
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https://spl.gov.in/SPL/index.php/psb-research
In terms of instrumentation, presently PSB is focussing on the scientific payloads like ... Venus Ionospheric and Solar Wind Analyser (VISWAS), Venus Ionospheric Plasma wavE detectoR (VIPER), VEnus THermosphere Ionosphere Composition Analyser(VETHICA), Venus Electron Temperature Analyser (VETA) for the upcoming Venus Mission.
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Announcement of Opportunity (AO) to international science community for Space-Based Experiments to Study Venus:
https://www.isro.gov.in/announcement-of-opportunity-ao-space-based-experiments-to-study-venus
https://www.isro.gov.in/sites/default/files/ao_venus.pdf
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Venus Ionospheric Plasma wavE detectoR (VIPER) prototype realized at SPL/VSSC:
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Cross-post:
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/gaganyaan-to-be-launched-in-2023-indias-first-space-station-by-2030-jitendra-singh/articleshow/88231964.cms'
Time Line update
L1 Aditya and Chandrayaan-3 2022-2023
Space Station in 2030s
Venus mission 2023
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https://twitter.com/isro/status/1519200047308566528
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https://www.hindustantimes.com/science/isro-plans-mission-to-venus-eyes-dec-2024-launch-window-101651664769670.html
ISRO plans mission to Venus, eyes Dec 2024 launch window
Addressing a day-long meeting on Venusian science, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman S Somnath said the Venus mission has been conceived, a project report made and "money identified".
The space agency is targeting a launch date in December 2024, with orbital manoeuvres scheduled for the following year, when the earth and Venus will be in such close proximity that the spacecraft can be placed in Venus' orbit with the least amount of propellant. The next similar window would be available in 2031.
Launch window moved to Dec 2024. Need to update thread title :)
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https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/aim-is-to-find-unique-outcome-from-venus-mission-isro-chief-somanath/articleshow/91318633.cms
As per initial plans, Isro’s spacecraft is expected to be injected into a 500km×60,000km orbit around Venus, which will be reduced to 300×300km science orbit via aerobraking, which may take 100 to 150 orbits around Venus, that is six to eight months here, as per Nigar Shaji, the study director of the proposed mission.
T Maria Antonita from Isro Space Science Programme Office, elaborated on the various objectives of the mission, which can be put under three broad categories each of which have further sub-objectives.
The key objectives are: Investigation of surface process and shallow subsurface stratigraphy; study of the structure, composition and dynamics of the atmosphere and the third, investigation of Solar wind interaction with Venusian ionosphere.
Under these, Isro will study active volcanism, occurrence of lightning, craters, presence of Oxygen, Venus’ geology, etc.
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One-day National Meet on Venusian Science:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUp6DplyPJk
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https://www.isro.gov.in/update/05-may-2022/isro-synergises-national-efforts-to-study-planet-venus
May 05, 2022
ISRO SYNERGISES NATIONAL EFFORTS TO STUDY PLANET VENUS
Inaugural session of the one-day national meet on Venus science; Seen in this picture Dr. Somanath S, Chairman, ISRO / Secretary, DOS (middle), Dr. Shantanu Bhatawdekar, Scientific Secretary, ISRO (right), Dr. Tirtha Pratim Das, Director, Science Programme Office, ISRO HQ (second from left) and Dr. Maria Antonitta, Programme manager, Science Programme Office, ISRO HQ (left)
On May 4, 2022, ISRO had organized a single-day National meeting on Venus science, in virtual mode, with the theme ‘Outstanding Scientific Problems on Venus: Need for Space-based Studies’, to brainstorm on the scientific contexts and possibilities of the Venusian science. The event witnessed active participation from several academic and research institutes, that included eleven scientific lectures from IIT-Delhi; IIT-Bombay; IIT-Roorkee; IIA, Bangalore; IISER, Kolkata; IIG, Mumbai; CUSAT, Kochi; SPPU, Pune; Amity University, Noida, and more; and four lectures from ISRO/DOS.
The event was inaugurated by Shri Somanath S., Chairman, ISRO / Secretary, DOS, in the presence of Shri Shantanu Bhatawdekar, Scientific Secretary, ISRO, and Dr. Tirtha Pratim Das, Director, Science Programme Office, ISRO Headquarters. During the inaugural address, Chairman, ISRO / Secretary, DOS mentioned that ISRO has conceptualized an orbiter mission to Venus, with a set of scientific instruments to study the Venus system science. He emphasized the need for the synergy between the academicians, scientists and engineers to ensure effective scientific planning for the country’s Venusian endeavor. He stressed bringing out unique scientific results from the proposed Venus mission and urged the scientists, and academicians of the Nation to invest their intellect and efforts to bring out the best scientific outcome. Shri Shantanu Bhatawdekar, Scientific Secretary, ISRO, mentioned that this meeting would provide a platform for the sustained association between the academia/institutes and the scientists and engineers of ISRO/DOS.
This national meet comprised three sessions. The first session was dedicated to the scientific context of the Venus exploration, and the mission challenges. The second session focused on the science expected from the space-based experiments from the proposed Venus mission, on the facets of the Sun-Venus connection, Venusian atmosphere and ionosphere, and Venusian surface and subsurface. The third session, titled ‘Opportunities for the User Community’ was dedicated to opening up the opportunities to establish an association between ISRO/DOS scientists and the scientists/academicians from the academic institutes. This session aimed at laying the plan for synergizing the experience, wisdom and expertise of the scientists of the country, to build an effective Venus science community, to take the flag of the future Venus missions forward.
During the third session of the meet, scientists from ISRO/DOS spoke about the scientific experiments envisaged to perform from the proposed Venus orbiter. They highlighted the domains and specific problems in which contributions from academia / institutes are solicited. Dr. Tirtha Pratim Das concluded the meeting seeking proposals from the scientists from academia and institutes to work jointly with ISRO/DOS towards the Venusian endeavor.
The event was live-streamed to the ISRO website, and the ISRO social media platforms. The recording of the meet can be viewed on Youtube/ISRO Official.
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From "Space Research in India" 2020-2021 report here (https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32023.msg2385933#msg2385933):
PRL has proposed the following instruments for proposed Venus Orbiter Mission.
• Narrow band oxygen Airglow detection in Venusian Atmosphere (NAVA)
• Venus Orbit Dust Experiment (VODEX)
• Lightning Instrument for Venus (LIVE)
• Venus Radiation environment monitor (VeRad)
• Venus Solar Soft x-ray Spectrometer (VS3)
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From "Space Research in India" 2020-2021 report here (https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32023.msg2385933#msg2385933):
Payloads under development for future missions:
o Venus Cloud Dynamics and Meteorology Experiment (VEDAM): VEDAM is a meteorological suite with additional local imaging, wind velocity and particle size measurements.
o Miniature Neutral Mass spectrometer (MNMS): This instrument would determine in- situ abundances of neutral species in the upper troposphere, Search for the presence of Sulphur and Chlorine compounds and Study of dynamics of the middle atmosphere of Venus clouds and their formation of different layers.
o Development Gamma-Ray Spectrometer for planetary Mission using scintillation detector: Knowledge of elements such as Si, O, Ca, Mg, Al, Fe, Na, K, Th help in deciphering the origin and evolution of various solar system objects such as planets, satellites, and asteroids. A Gamma-ray spectrometer (GRS) is being developed to be flown on a future missions for such measurements.
Looks like PRL has already started working on payloads for Venus mission.
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https://www.spsmai.com/experts-speak/?id=1179&q=Indias-Venus-Mission [05 June 2022]
S. Somnath, Chairman of the Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO) stated on May 4, 2022, that ISRO is ready to co-sign an orbiter to Earth's twin sister planet Venus to study the Venusian atmosphere and that ISRO is set to construct and launch a mission to discover Venus as the capability to build and launch a mission to the planet exists with India. Somnath was speaking at a one-day conclave; National Meet on Venus Science with the theme ‘Outstanding scientific problems on Venus: Need for space-based studies’.
Somnath said, "Work has been going on for years. Currently, the Venus mission is conceived, the project report is made, overall plans are ready, money is identified and that the entire thing is done. Building and putting a mission on Venus is possible for India in a very short space of time, as the capability today exists with India," ...
ISRO is eyeing the December 2024 window for its Venus launch with orbital maneuvers planned for the following year when the Earth and Venus would be so aligned that the spacecraft could be put in the planet’s orbit using propellant. ISRO is yet to release an official timeline for the Venus mission but the next similar window will then be available only in 2031.
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"Venus Infrared Atmospheric Gases Linker" (VIRAL) payload being developed for ISRO's Venus Orbiter Mission (Shukrayaan) is in trouble. This payload is being jointly developed by Russia (Roscosmos) and France (LATMOS, CNES): https://tass.com/science/1493057 [12 Aug 2022]
France refuses to work with Russia on device for India's Venus mission — Space Institute
The device is intended to study the atmosphere of Venus by spectroscopy
MOSCOW, August 13. /TASS/. France has abandoned plans to create, together with Russia, a device for the orbiter that India plans to launch to Venus, Oleg Korablev, deputy director of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences for the ExoMars project, head of the Planetary Physics department of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told TASS.
The key element, the detector, will be Russian-made. "In principle, there is also a Chinese analogue, but now we want to use a Russian one," Korablev said.
According to him, the French side initially planned to pay for the purchase of the detector. "Roscosmos approached the whole thing with understanding, with aspiration," Korablev added, "We agreed on new estimates, the costs; Russia itself will buy these components. And, accordingly, not of French manufacture".
The start of the Indian mission was scheduled for December 2024, the exit station to the Venusian orbit is planned for 2025, when the Earth and Venus will be close to each other ...
According to Korablev, there is no exact information at this time on whether India's first mission to Venus will take place. "It depends on the Indian partners, so far they haven't fully decided when. And whether it will happen at all. The mission has not been finally approved," he said.
"Because Roscosmos is not financing us yet as the Indian project is not confirmed. We are waiting for this moment, but time is running out. Perhaps, India can make devices in a year, but we cannot. Since the requirements to Russian devices and components are very high, there is the so-called certification of components, which is not so easy to procure. This is why our cycle is longer. So, because of this, we are a bit at odds with this launch date, if it is respected, of course."
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One of the slides (2:23:46) in ISRO Chairman S Somanath's recent talk at the Indian National Academy of Engineering covers ISRO Science Missions, and it seems to mention a possible orbiter+lander combo for Venus:
https://youtu.be/k7wOlDJIbFc?t=8626
Mission to Venus
* Orbiter & lander
* Higher resolution surface-topography
* Profiles of sub-surface features
* Solar X-ray spectrum
* International payloads
So while aerocapture may be considered doable for Venus given its relatively thick atmosphere, a lander would however seem much more challenging, due to the high temperature environment on the surface. How would sub-surface mapping be done? Some kind of radar?
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Cross-post:
https://twitter.com/sdhrthmp/status/1619543335416532993
Chandrayaan-3, we will have this year end or next year beginning..discussions underway about the next #mars mission..now we’re going to the Sun- Aditya-L1 by June-July..mission to asteroid, to Venus are at discussion level as I understand” Umamaheswaran, #isro HSFC Director
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From June 2023 monthly report: https://www.isro.gov.in/media_isro/pdf/Monthly_summary/Monthly_Summary_June2023_Eng.pdf
Extensive three-dimensional simulations of the distribution of solar occultation tangent points and their spatial coverage as a function of various satellite orbital parameters and seasons were conducted for Venus.
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PRL's proposal for payloads for Venus mission: https://www.prl.res.in/~pids/VENUS.html
PRL has proposed the following instruments for Venus Orbiter Mission. These instrument have been reviewed by the expert committee and also by the APEX. The following instruments are shortlisted to be flown fly in Venus Orbiter mission.
Venus Orbit Dust Experiment (VODEX)
It is proposed to understand the interplanetary dust flux at Venus and its possible distribution around Venus. There are no measurements of Interplanetary Dust Particles (IDPs) at Venus. The instrument can detect particles of size from few hundreds nm to few µm, travelling at hypervelocity (> 1 km/s). The outcomes can help explain the dust flux at Venus and whether there is any ring around Venus. The study of dust can help explain the RO experiment results.
Lightning Instrument for Venus (LIVE)
This experiment will measure the lightning spectrum and its frequency of occurrence on Venus. There are few measurements which indicate the presence of lightning on Venus however, they are controversial. The lightning gives energy to the atmosphere and the chemistry may be modified.
Venus Radiation environment monitor (VeRad)
To measure the high energy particles entering in to the Venus atmosphere in the energy range of 100 keV to 100 MeV and to study their effects in the enhancement of ionization rates on the Venus atmosphere. This is the first time such measurement will be carried out in the close vicinity. This instrument also aims at measuring the radiation levels en-route to the Venus. The wide dynamic range will be covered will be covered with stack of Si PIN detectors and Scintillator detectors.
Venus Solar Soft x-ray Spectrometer (VS3)
To study the effect of solar X-rays on the Venus atmosphere in the energy range of 1 to 15 keV with high energy resolution and high cadence measurements. No simultaneous measurement of Solar X-ray flux and the electron density has been attempted.
Retarding Potential Analyser (RPA)
In situ investigation of ion densities (O2+, O+, CO2+ and H+) and the plasma temperature of the upper atmospheres. This instrument is being developed by IIST and PRL is responsible for data analysis and science.
Venus Neutral and Ion Mass Analyzer (VENIMA)
To measure the composition, structure, variability and the thermal state of the Venus atmosphere and its dynamics by measuring the ions and neutrals with mass resolution of >100 from the orbiter satellite. Discussion with SPL/VSSC is underway to explore the facility of combining the developments both at PRL and SPL.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAvQhYQ5hqo