European Space Agency’s EnVision mission to Venus

Context: Recently, European Space Agency (ESA) has announced a new mission- EnVision mission to Venus.

• Last week, NASA selected two missions– DAVINCI+ and VERITAS to the planet Venus which will launch between 2028-2030.

About EnVision

• EnVision is an ESA led mission with contributions from NASA.
• It is likely to be launched in the 2030s.
• The earliest launch opportunity for EnVision is 2031, followed by 2032 and 2033.
• Once launched on an Ariane 6 rocket, the spacecraft will take about 15 months to reach Venus and will take 16 more months to achieve orbit circularisation.
• The spacecraft will carry a range of instruments to study the planet’s atmosphere and surface, monitor trace gases in the atmosphere and analyse its surface composition.
• A radar provided by NASA will help to image and map the surface.
• EnVision will follow another ESA-led mission to Venus called ‘Venus Express’ (2005-2014) that focussed on atmospheric research and pointed to volcanic hotspots on the planet’s surface.

About Venus

• Venus is the second-brightest object in the sky after the moon.
• It appears bright because of its thick cloud cover that reflects and scatters light.
• But while Venus, which is the second closest planet to the Sun, is called the Earth’s twin because of their similar sizes, the two planets have significant differences between them.
• Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system because of the heat that is trapped by its thick cloud cover.
• Surface temperatures on Venus can go up to 471 degrees Celsius, which is hot enough to melt lead.
• Venus moves forward on its orbit around the Sun but spins backwards around its axis slowly. This means on Venus the Sun rises in the west and sets in the East.
• One day on Venus is equivalent to 243 Earth days because of its backward spinning, opposite to that of the Earth’s and most other planets.
• Venus also does not have a moon and no rings.
• Because of the planet’s harsh environment, no humans have visited it and even the spacecraft that have been sent to the planet have not survived for a very long time.
• The first spacecraft that visited Venus was the Soviet Union’s Venera series (the spacecraft, however, could not survive for long because of the planet’s harsh conditions), followed by NASA’s Magellan Mission that studied Venus from 1990-1994.
• As of now, Japan’s Akatsuki mission is studying the planet from Orbit since 2015.