Future Venus Missions Options

[StargazeInWonder]

The same page indicates that the quartz's refractive properties required a compensatory lens to be added to the design. If sapphire does not require that, then that would be one justification.

[mcaplinger]

New paper on the DAVINCI mission: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/ac63c2/pdf

[antipode]

Three new papers on the ArXiv re life finding mission concepts to Venus focusing on entry probes and balloons.

First paper features details about Rocket Lab's tiny entry probe 'demonstrator' scheduled for launch next year.

https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2208/2208.05570.pdf
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2208/2208.05579.pdf
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2208/2208.05582.pdf

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[StargazeInWonder]

China has a proposed Venus mission which, given the brief description given here, seems like it would overlap in goals with Veritas and Envision, and if selected, would arrive at about the same time as Veritas. The orbit would be somewhat higher so perhaps the radar resolution would not be quite as good as Veritas, but there are no hard specs here.

It seems a bit odd that after no U.S. missions to Venus in over four decades that China would even contemplate sending a similar mission at almost the same time. Then again, this is from a list of many proposed missions, so maybe the similarity is coincidental.

https://www.space.com/china-venus-mission-details

[rlorenz]

Lori Glaze just announced that fallout from the Psyche launch delay has pushed the VERITAS launch to 2031

[StargazeInWonder]

If all else remains the same, then it seems like DAVINCI+ will make its descent before VERITAS maps the area of its landing site. That seems like it doesn't really change which things we'll learn, just the order in which we learn them.

[vjkane]

Lori Glaze just announced that fallout from the Psyche launch delay has pushed the VERITAS launch to 2031

After reading the press release on the problems found with the Psyche mission development, many of them relate to staff and expertise drain at JPL. VERITAS is a second JPL mission, so part of the delay could be to deal with the issues at JPL (as well as handle the increased cost of the Psyche mission from its delay).

DAVINCI, as I recall, is being developed by Goddard and so at least the JPL issues wouldn't apply. (Although NASA may review all centers for these issues.)

[stevesliva]

Lori Glaze just announced that fallout from the Psyche launch delay has pushed the VERITAS launch to 2031

A 2-year launch delay. (To answer the question I had reading this.)

[vjkane]

A 2-year launch delay. (To answer the question I had reading this.)

My recollection is that VERITAS was aiming for a 2028 launch.

I think the reasoning is that the bulk of the MSR development (launch 2028) needs to be completed before switching to the ramp up for the VERITAS development.

A 2031 launch would be the same as EnVision is believe. If I remember correctly, it will take ~2 years for EnVision to reach Venus and then do aerobraking to achieve the mapping orbit. Probably something similar for VERITAS. So, I' expecting the science mission for VERITAS to begin around 2033 (at least until we see a plan from the VERITAS team).

And the announcement said that the VERITAS launch would be *no earlier than* 2031, not that 2031 was a firm date.

[StargazeInWonder]

This still indicates (the old plan, no doubt) a July 2028 arrival for VERITAS, which would mean launch around the end of 2027.

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/veritas/overview/

While cruises to Venus of about seven months are possible and typical, note that Magellan, when plans were changed by the domino effect of Challenger and Galileo, ended up taking a long cruise of over a year to Venus.

[stevesliva]

Not sure what source I had yesterday, though I suspect I was confused.

Better:

Lori Glaze: Right now, the scheduled plan is that VERITAS would be the first one to launch. At around the 2028, I believe is the, the schedule right now and then followed shortly by DAVINCI in 2029. Possibly 2030. But very close there together. And then the EnVision mission would follow after those two. Its baseline is to launch in 2032. But I know ESA is actually looking at trying to see if there's a way to launch a little earlier. So they're going to launch very close to each other. This will be a really synergistic exploration of Venus at the end of the 2020s.

https://www.nasa.gov/mediacast/gravity-assi...with-lori-glaze

I likely confused the two, adding a year. So-- ya'll are right. ~3yr delay to VERITAS launch.

[dtolman]

More bad news for VERITAS - their funding was virtually zero'ed out this year as well. Flight delays I've seen before - but slashing the funding and stopping development is something I can't recall seeing previously...

[StargazeInWonder]

That's worrisome about VERITAS.

The notional timelines for the other missions are for a 2031 landing for the DAVINCI probe; some flyby science will precede that around January 2030.

EnVision will launch in 2031 or later, and would complete its first venusian day of science about three years later, after cruise and aerobraking.

The original VERITAS timeline would have had it returning results before any of that, but now it seems like it might be operating more or less simultaneously with EnVision. While any delay is disappointing, I'm not sure that I sense the specific problem that the article implies when it says that VERITAS data would have been used to "calibrate" EnVision results. I suppose that VERITAS data could have been used to determine targets for EnVision high-resolution radar mapping, but EnVision will also be able to perform that role for itself, and Magellan data already exists, so it appears that the real misfortune here is in delaying science rather than losing any. Maybe from the standpoint of real-time observable surface change it would be nice to see a snapshot of Venus from a few years before EnVision arrives, but if there's real-time change on that timeline, then there'll almost certainly be plenty of change to notice anyway, given the decades since Magellan.

With seven more years before DAVINCI first approaches Venus, the long wait for NASA's return to the planet continues.

[bobik]

Recently, EnVision was formally adopted into ESA's science programme. Now the corresponding Definition Study Report, the so-called Red Book, has become available.

[dtolman]

Good news - VERITAS is back! Funding was restored in the latest budget, and it's now on NASA's schedule with a 2031 launch date