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Indian mission to Venus, - proposed!
Phil Stooke
post May 20 2015, 08:47 PM
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Interesting news item from The Asian Age:

http://www.asianage.com/india/after-mars-i...e-2-3-years-335

Quick summary - looks like it's only a feasibility study, so I don't know how far it has gone along the planning and proposal process. But the veteran French planetary balloon proponent Jacques Blamont has been working with Indians on the plans, and one or more balloons in the atmosphere are part of the mission plan.

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bobik
post Nov 8 2018, 04:37 PM
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Announcement of Opportunity (AO) to international science community for Space-Based Experiments to Study Venus
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JRehling
post Nov 12 2018, 02:23 AM
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This is very nice to read about. Although the word "orbiter" does not appear, it seems that an orbiter with no probe/lander is the intention.

There is a lot of potential for Venus exploration, and I'm delighted that India is joining the effort. I was just reading about ESA's Envision mission proposal, and it seems like any Indian orbiter and Envision could accomplish complementary science. For example, SAR at different wavelengths could offer contrasting measurements of surface roughness, more valuable than either alone. But without knowing if Envision will be selected or the instruments of the Indian Venus orbiter, it's too early to say.

I would love to see these orbiters carry out major portions of what can be accomplished from a low orbit, and then perhaps the next U.S. competitive mission selection could focus on goals that can be accomplished with an entry probe/lander.
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vjkane
post Nov 12 2018, 04:12 PM
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The AO lists the total scientific payload as ~100 kg, presumably to be divided between the Indian instruments listed as selected in the AO (see below) and any foreign contributions. By comparison, the 2016 EnVision proposed mission's radar unit would have been 176 kg, it's Venus Emissivity Mapper at 14 kg.

Listed instruments to be provided by India:

1. S-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)
2. Advanced Radar for Topside Ionosphere and subsurface sounding
3. Ultra Violet (UV) Imaging Spectroscopy Telescope
4. Thermal Camera
5. Cloud Monitoring Camera
6. Venus Atmospheric SpectroPolarimeter
7. Airglow photometer
8. Radio Occultation Experiment
9. Ionospheric Electron Temperature Analyser
10. Retarding Potential Analyser
11. Mass Spectrometer
12. Plasma Wave Detector (Langmuir Probe, Electric Field Sensor and Magnetometer)

The elliptical orbit, initially 500 x 60,000 km, likely will limit the highest resolution imaging by the SAR to the latitude of periapsis.


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JTN
post May 19 2019, 09:37 AM
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Bit of buzz about this in Indian press sites recently (via spacetoday.net aggregator). E.g., indiatimes.com:
QUOTE
a date with Venus in 2023

QUOTE
"We have received great response from across the world, and more than 20 payloads planned," said Isro chairman K Sivan
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JRehling
post May 19 2019, 09:25 PM
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20 instruments would be quite a packed mission – none of Mars Observer, Voyager, and Cassini had more than 12! I'm hopeful that the Venus Emissivity Mapper is part of the set. This mission would have a highly elliptical orbit, so coverage at high resolution would be limited, but even getting this data for a stripe around Venus could be a nice addition to our understanding.
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Ohsin
post Oct 4 2019, 12:31 PM
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It appears two Russian payloads by Russian Space Research Institute and Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology have been shortlisted.

https://ria.ru/20191004/1559421304.html

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Ohsin
post Nov 6 2019, 08:06 PM
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From Venus Exploration Analysis Group (VEXAG) 2019

https://twitter.com/ThePlanetaryGuy/status/...136731828609025
https://twitter.com/SpacedOutSid/status/1192138230184861696

Science objectives:
* Mapping the Venusian surface at high spatial resolution of 30 to 40 meters
* Determining the structure and stratigraphy of surface/subsurface features -- volcanic hotspots
* Determining the structure and composition of the atmosphere
* Understanding Cloud Dynamics
* Investigating Venusian Ionosphere

Indian Proposals: 54
Recommended: 16

International Proposals: 21
Recommended: 7 (USA-3, Russia-1, Russia/France-1)

Collaborative payloads:
* India/Germany: 1
* India/Sweden: 1


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JRehling
post Nov 7 2019, 02:10 AM
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This is cheery news. Four (not necessarily fresh) reactions:

1) There is a surface emissivity instrument! Getting this dataset for Venus' surface will be a breakthrough.
2) That's some very high resolution radar, the long-awaited upgrade to Magellan.
3) The sheer number of instruments is unprecedented. That's exciting; maybe creates some risk or complications, at least? How do 23 instruments (actually, the fraction of 23 that needs a line-of-sight) even get a view of Venus at the same time?
4) This mission will be in a highly elliptical orbit, so I'm not sure how the planet will get a comprehensive mapping with [take your surface instrument of choice]. If the latitude of periapsis is equatorial, the high latitudes will get worse coverage unless that latitude migrates throughout the mission.
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vjkane
post Nov 7 2019, 02:45 PM
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QUOTE (JRehling @ Nov 6 2019, 06:10 PM) *
This is cheery news. Four (not necessarily fresh) reactions:


I agree that this is a wonderful instrument list, but it would be considered ambitious for a NASA or ESA mission. More means more risk and more tradeoffs between instrument observations.

I'd like to know what the expected volume of returned data is. I also have a memory that the orbiter will be in an elliptical orbit. If so, I'd like to know the latitude of the periapsis and whether that will change over the course of the mission.

My guess is that some instruments will take global measurements while the more data hungry instruments (radar especially but also the thermal emissivity instrument) will take localized measurements, especially if the spacecraft is in an elliptical orbit.

Even if I'm correct in my conservatism, this could be a very nice mission. I don't think it will be a replacement for more focused orbiters designed for large data volume global measurements.


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vjkane
post Nov 7 2019, 03:18 PM
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Just came across this tidbit from a presentation to the Planetary Science Advisory Committee summarizing the status of the proposed ESA/NASA EnVision mission (NASA would provide some or all of the SAR instrument). The spacecraft would carry three instruments plus radio science. Here's it's coverage of Venus after it's prime mission:

78 Tbit data return in 4-cycle, with >60% IR and sounder coverage, >15% InSAR and polarimetry coverage (30 m resolution), and 2% high resolution (~2 m resolution)

VEXAG updata


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John Moore
post Nov 7 2019, 09:13 PM
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Slightly off topic, but appropriate, possible locations for future missions, the IAU yesterday (6 Oct, 2019) approved two new tesserae on Venus -- Jyestha and Istustaya (below).

Note, the singular is 'Tessera', plural 'Tesserae' (Tesserae are the most tectonically, deformed regions on Venus, therefore, representing the oldest materials, according to geological experts).

John Moore



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JRehling
post Nov 10 2019, 09:52 PM
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Lest there be any doubt, the planned orbit is highly elliptical: peri=500km, apo=60,000km. That is very similar to Venus Express' orbit, has about the same apoapsis as Venera 15/16 and Pioneer Venus and similar to the planned orbit for Akatskui (the actual apoapsis ended up much more remote). For what it's worth, Mariner 9's apoaspsis at Mars was 16,860 km while Mars Express' is 10,107 km.

Circularizing the orbit on a mission like this is costly and that ends up being paid somehow in mass and complexity. This high instrument count is part of a tradeoff for the elliptical orbit. It means that coverage will not be so complete in time (atmosphere) or space (surface), but given the novelty and diversity of the instruments, it's a pretty good tradeoff. Magellan is the only Venus orbiter that's had a circular orbit, which is ideal for surface instruments, but Shukrayaan-1 is poised to give us great new surface science that will cover a lot of the surface (probably the low latitudes) at high resolution and leave us hungry for a future mission to cover the rest. If it succeeds, it may shift the balance of Venus science goals to surface missions rather than incremental gains from orbit.
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Ohsin
post Dec 13 2019, 06:51 AM
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ISRO's full presentation on 'Venus Orbiter Mission' at VEXAG 2019 is now available among others.

https://www.lpi.usra.edu/vexag/meetings/arc...tions/Nigar.pdf

https://www.lpi.usra.edu/vexag/meetings/archive/vexag-17/


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Ohsin
post Jul 1 2020, 03:57 PM
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https://www.irf.se/en/news/2020/07/01/swedi...-space-mission/

QUOTE
Swedish Institute of Space Physics return to Venus on Indian space mission
For the second time the Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF) will explore Venus. On board the Indian Venus mission Shukrayaan-1, IRF’s satellite instrument Venusian Neutrals Analyzer (VNA) will study how the charged particles from the Sun interact with the atmosphere and exosphere of the planet.

Between 2006-2014 IRF’s instrument ASPERA-4 (Analyzes of Space Plasma and EneRgetic Atoms) studied Venus on board the European spacecraft Venus Express. The satellite instrument measured the plasma properties around Venus in detail, as well as neutral atoms that escape into space from the atmosphere. ASPERA-4 consisted of four different sensors to analyze energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) and plasma particles.

By analyzing ENAs, the instrument contributes to our knowledge of the interaction between the charged particles from the sun (solar wind) and the atmosphere of Venus.

Associate Professor Yoshifumi Futaana, IRF, is the Principal Investigator responsible for both ASPERA-4 and now the VNA instrument that will explore the brightest planet in the sky.

“Venus is the twin of our Earth, but these planets are very different. The atmosphere is dense and hot, but it is waterless. Water existed 4 billion years ago when Venus was formed, but it has been lost, probably to space. ASPERA-4 proved that water on Venus is escaping to space with energy obtained from the solar wind. Our results also provide essential information to help us understand exoplanets around other stars, planets which we cannot explore with instruments in place around them”, says Yoshifumi Futaana.

IRF’s satellite instrument on Shukrayaan-1 will be part of a larger Indian instrument package and will be the ninth generation of IRF’s series of miniatured ion and ENA instruments. The first generation was named SARA (Sub-keV Atom Reflecting Analyzer) and was launched on board the successful Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 that explored the Moon in 2008-2009.

SARA consisted of two sensors. One was a detector for energetic neutral atoms and the other was an instrument to measure the flow of ions in the solar wind. The instrument studied how the plasma around the Moon interacts with the moon where the surface is not protected by an atmosphere or a magnetic field.

For the first time ever, SARA could investigate energetic atoms that are knocked from the lunar surface when they are hit by the solar wind.

The SARA experiment was the first collaborative project between IRF and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The new Venus mission means that the collaboration between IRF and ISRO continues.

IRF’s director Professor Stas Barabash was the Swedish Principal Investigator of the SARA experiment, and is the lead Co-Investigator of the VNA instrument.

“The SARA experiment was truly an exciting mission which revealed a number of unknown secrets about how the Moon interacts with space. Collaboration with the Indian team was the key of this successful experiment. The next target of our joint investigation is Venus in order to understand why the Earth Earth and Venus, which began as twins, evolved so differently”, says Stas Barabash.
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