The European Venus Explorer (EVE), known until 2007 as the Venus Entry Probe (VEP), is a proposed

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

space probe to

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

. In the timeline of the 2005 TRS (technology reference study), the spacecraft was proposed to be launched on a

Soyuz-2 Soyuz2 (; GRAU index: 14A14) is a Russian expendable medium-lift launch vehicle and the seventh major iteration of the Soyuz rocket family. Compared to its predecessors, Soyuz-2 features significant upgrades, including improved engines and ...

Fregat Fregat () is an upper stage developed by NPO Lavochkin for universal compatibility with a wide range of medium- and heavy-lift launch vehicles. Fregat has been used primarily with Soyuz and Zenit rockets, and entered operational service in ...

launch vehicle around 2013.ESA description of the ''VEP'' technology reference study
/ref> However, requests to fund and develop the spacecraft in 2007 and 2010 were rejected.
/ref> EVE was a Medium-Class mission proposal in the

Cosmic Vision Cosmic Vision is the third campaign of space science and space exploration missions in the Science Programme of the European Space Agency (ESA). Formulated in 2005 as ''Cosmic Vision: Space Science for Europe 2015–2025'', the campaign succee ...

programme. The mission concept consisted of an orbiter and balloon which would circumnavigate the planet over the course of one week, and a lander probe which would operate for approximately one hour on the surface.

Overview

The mission concept calls for two satellites: the Venus Polar Orbiter (VPO), for remote sensing of the atmospheric, and the Venus Elliptical Orbiter (VEO), which deploys the entry probe from a highly elliptical orbit. The entry probe would contain a balloon-aerobot which floats in benign conditions at 55 km altitude in the middle cloud layer, and would drop up to 15 microprobes into the lower atmosphere.

References

External links

ESA - Venus Entry Probe
- an atmospheric probe
Contractor for the SSTL/ESA – Venus Entry Probe study

Missions to Venus European Space Agency space probes Orbiters (space probe) Proposed space probes {{Venus-stub