The goal of the new projects is to understand how Venus became a “hell-like world”, even though this cosmic body is similar to Earth in different ways. NASA has stated that Venus may once have been the first habitable planet in the solar system, with an Earth-like ocean and climate.
“It’s surprising how little we know about Venus, but the results of these missions add up to telling the planet’s story from clouds in its sky, and through volcanoes on its surface to the bottom and core,” said Tom Wagner, a NASA scientist about the upcoming missions. “It will be as if we have rediscovered the planet,” he added.
One project was named DAVINCI+. The US space agency promised him to know the composition of the atmosphere and an insight into the changes it underwent, Writes Axios news site. The second mission, called VERITAS, will attempt to map the planet’s surface and determine whether there is movement of tectonic plates and volcanic activity on Venus. The budgets for both initiatives are around $500 million (more than $10 billion).
“We hope that these missions will deepen our understanding of the evolution of Earth and why it is habitable today when other planets in our solar system are not,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at a news conference on Wednesday.
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