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Venera-D (russian: Венера-Д, ) is a proposed
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...
n space mission to
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...
that would include an orbiter and a lander to be launched in 2029.
The orbiter's prime objective is to perform observations with the use of a radar. The lander, based on the
Venera design, would be capable of operating for a long duration (≈3 h)
on the planet's surface. The "D" in Venera-D stands for "dolgozhivushaya," which means "long lasting" in Russian.
Venera-D will be the first Venus probe launched by the
Russian Federation
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
(the earlier Venera probes were launched by the former
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
). Venera-D will serve as the flagship for a new generation of Russian-built Venus probes, culminating with a lander capable of withstanding the harsh Venusian environment for more than the 1 hours logged by the Soviet probes. The surface of Venus experiences average temperatures of 462° Celsius (864 Fahrenheit), crushing pressures, and corroding clouds of carbon dioxide laced with
sulfuric acid
Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid ( Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen and hydrogen, with the molecular fo ...
. Venera-D will be launched on an
Angara A5
The Angara rocket family (Russian: Ангара) is a family of launch vehicles being developed by the Moscow-based Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center. The launch vehicles are to put between and into low Earth orbit and ...
rocket.
for its "wish list" of science projects to be included into the Federal Space Program in 2006–2015. During the formulation of the mission concept in 2004, the launch of Venera-D was expected in 2013 and its landing on the surface of Venus in 2014.
[Venera-D mission at Russia Space Web](_blank)
(accessed 25 November 2013) In its original conception, it had a large orbiter, a sub-satellite, two balloons, two small landers, and a large long-lived lander (≈3 h).
By 2011, the mission had been pushed back to 2018, and scaled back to an orbiter with a subsatellite orbiter, and a single lander with an expected 3-hour operation time. By the beginning of 2011, the Venera-D project entered Phase A (Preliminary Design) stage of development.
Following the loss of the
Phobos-Grunt
Fobos-Grunt or Phobos-Grunt (russian: link=no, Фобос-Грунт, where ''грунт'' refers to the ''ground'' in the narrow geological meaning of any type of soil or rock exposed on the surface) was an attempted Russian sample return miss ...
spacecraft in November 2011 and resulting delays in all Russian planetary projects (with the exception of
ExoMars
ExoMars (Exobiology on Mars) is an astrobiology programme of the European Space Agency (ESA).
The goals of ExoMars are to search for signs of past life on Mars, investigate how the Martian water and geochemical environment varies, investigate ...
, a joint effort with the
European Space Agency
, owners =
, headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France
, coordinates =
, spaceport = Guiana Space Centre
, seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png
, seal_size = 130px
, image = Views in the Main Control Room (120 ...
), the implementation of the project was again delayed to no earlier than 2026.
The possible
detection of phosphine in Venus's atmosphere by
ALMA in September 2020 spurred a renewed push to implement the Venera-D project. As of March 2021, Venera-D is planned for launch no earlier than November 2029.
Status
Lavochkin Association are leading the effort in the development of the mission concept architecture. It may include instruments from NASA. From 2018 to 2020, the second phase of the science activities between NASA and the
Russian Space Research Institute (IKI) will continue to refine the science concepts, the orbiter and lander mission architecture, as well as a detailed examination of the types of aerial platforms that could address key Venus science ''in situ''.
[Venera-D Phase II]
LPI. 2019. Additional workshops will be held as the mission concept develops.
From the standpoint of total mass delivered to Venus, the best launch opportunities occur in 2029 and 2031.
Goals
The mission has an emphasis on the
atmospheric superrotation, the geological processes that have formed and modified the surface, the mineralogical and elemental composition of surface materials, and the chemical processes related to the interaction of the surface and the atmosphere.
;The orbiter's goals are:
*Study of the dynamics and nature of superrotation, radiative balance, and the nature of the
greenhouse effect
The greenhouse effect is a process that occurs when energy from a planet's host star goes through the planet's atmosphere and heats the planet's surface, but greenhouse gases in the atmosphere prevent some of the heat from returning directly ...
*Characterize the thermal structure of the atmosphere, winds, thermal tides, and solar locked structures
*Measure the composition of the atmosphere, study the clouds, their structure, composition, microphysics, and chemistry
*Investigate the upper atmosphere,
ionosphere
The ionosphere () is the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth, from about to above sea level, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays ...
, electrical activity,
magnetosphere
In astronomy and planetary science, a magnetosphere is a region of space surrounding an astronomical object in which charged particles are affected by that object's magnetic field. It is created by a celestial body with an active interior d ...
, and the gas escape rate
;The lander's goals are:
*Perform chemical analysis of surface materials and study the elemental composition of the surface, including radiogenic elements
*Study of interaction between the surface and the atmosphere
*Investigate the structure and chemical composition of the atmosphere down to the surface, including the abundances and
isotopic ratios of the trace and
noble gas
The noble gases (historically also the inert gases; sometimes referred to as aerogens) make up a class of chemical elements with similar properties; under standard conditions, they are all odorless, colorless, monatomic gases with very low ch ...
es
*Perform direct chemical analysis of the cloud aerosols
*Characterize the geology of local landforms at different scales
Notional science instruments
To achieve the mission's science goals, the team is assessing the following instruments for the orbiter:
*
Mossbauer Spectrometer /
APXS
:''APXS is also an abbreviation for APache eXtenSion tool, an extension for Apache web servers.''
An alpha particle X-ray spectrometer (APXS) is a spectrometer that analyses the chemical element composition of a sample from scattered alpha part ...
*Chemical analyses package (CAP): Gas Chromatograph & Mass Spectrometer
*Meteorological suite
*Sample acquisition, handling, processing
Potential NASA collaboration
In 2014, Russian scientists asked NASA if the U.S. space agency would be interested in collaborating some instruments to the mission.
Any potential collaboration is still under discussion.
Potential science instruments NASA could contribute include a
Raman spectrometer and an
Alpha-Proton X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS).
The solar-powered Venus Atmosphere Mobile Platform (VAMP) is currently under development by the Northrop-Grumman Corp. If included, it would be capable of flying within the cloud layer between 50 and 62 km, and is being developed to operate over the 117 Earth days needed for complete monitoring over one full Venus day.
It would carry instruments to acquire observations of the atmospheric structure, circulation, radiation, composition and trace gas species, along with cloud aerosols and the unknown ultraviolet absorber(s).
Another proposed payload is LLISSE (
Long Lived In-situ Solar System Explorer), which uses new materials and heat-resistant electronics that would enable independent operation for about 90 Earth days.
Its anticipated instruments include wind speed/direction sensors, temperature sensors, pressure sensors, and a chemical multi-sensor array. LLISSE is a small cube of about .
[NASA's space probe for exploring Venus should be ready by 2023.]
Alison DeNisco Rayome, ''C-Net''. 23 October 2019. The lander may carry two LLISSE units; one would be battery-powered (3,000 h), and the other would be wind-powered.
As a result of US
sanctions imposed as a result of the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. A ...
, Roscosmos Director-General
Dmitry Rogozin
Dmitry Olegovich Rogozin (russian: link=no, Дми́трий Оле́гович Рого́зин; born 21 December 1963) is a Russian politician who served as director general of Roscosmos from 2018 to July 2022. He previously served as deputy ...
announced that any continued participation between Russia and the United States on Venera-D was inappropriate.
See also
*
*
List of missions to Venus
*
VERITAS (spacecraft)
VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy) is an upcoming mission from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to map the surface of planet Venus in high resolution. The combination of topography, near-infra ...
, orbiter
*
DAVINCI+, orbiter and atmospheric probe
*
EnVision
Envision may refer to:
Organizations
* Envision EMI, a management company based in Virginia, USA
* Envision Energy, a wind turbine manufacturer and energy technology company based in Shanghai, China
* Envision Financial, a financial instituti ...
, ESA orbiter
References
External links
Venera-D – Federal Space program of Russian Federation
Venera-D Phase II Report
(31 January 2019)
{{Future spaceflights
Russian space probes
Missions to Venus
Proposed space probes
2029 in spaceflight
2020s in Russia