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10 APR. 2003
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Since the beginning of the space era, Venus has been an attractive subject for planetary science. Being twice as close to Earth as Mars at the closest approach point, it was one of the first natural targets to explore.
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The Pioneer Venus spacecraft
ESA's next Venus orbiter will be Envision, which will be the first mission to provide a holistic view of the planet from its inner core to upper atmosphere. By studying all of Venus's different layers – and how they interact – Envision hopes to determine how and why Venus and Earth evolved so differently. The mission was selected by ESA’s Science Programme Committee on 10 June 2021 as the fifth Medium-class mission in the Agency’s Cosmic Vision plan, targeting a launch in the early 2030s.
NASA has also selected two new missions to Venus as part of its Discovery Program, each expected to launch in the 2028-2030 timeframe: DAVINCI+ (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging) and VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy).
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The Soviet Russian Venera 15 spacecraft
ESA's next Venus orbiter will be Envision, which will be the first mission to provide a holistic view of the planet from its inner core to upper atmosphere. By studying all of Venus's different layers – and how they interact – Envision hopes to determine how and why Venus and Earth evolved so differently. The mission was selected by ESA’s Science Programme Committee on 10 June 2021 as the fifth Medium-class mission in the Agency’s Cosmic Vision plan, targeting a launch in the early 2030s.
NASA has also selected two new missions to Venus as part of its Discovery Program, each expected to launch in the 2028-2030 timeframe: DAVINCI+ (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging) and VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy).
Mission (year) | Type | Highlights | |
|---|---|---|---|
Mariner 2 NASA, 1962 | Atmospheric probe | First spacecraft at Venus, closest distance 35 000 km | No magnetic field detected |
Venera 4 USSR, 1967 | Atmospheric probe | First probe to return data about atmospheric composition | Crushed by pressure before reaching the surface |
Venera 5 & 6 USSR, 1969 | Atmospheric probes | Detected presence of atmospheric nitrogen and oxygen | Crushed by pressure before reaching the surface |
Venera 7 USSR, 1970 | Lander | First successful soft landing of a spacecraft on another planet | Measured surface temperature and pressure |
Venera 8 USSR, 1972 | Lander | First to measure windspeed as it descended through atmosphere | Surface composition measured by gamma-ray spectrometer |
Mariner 10 NASA, 1974 | Flyby | First spacecraft to have an imaging system, flew by on way to Mercury in 1974 | Recorded atmospheric circulation and cloud-top temperatures |
Venera 9 & 10 USSR, 1975 | 2 orbiter/landers | First spacecraft in orbit around Venus | Landers returned the first black and white panoramic images of surface |
Pioneer Venus 1 & 2 NASA, 1978–1992 | 1 orbiter 4 atmospheric probes | Longest mission in orbit around Venus (14 years) and first orbiter to make radar map of surface | Measured structure, composition and cloud properties down to 12 km altitude |
Venera 11 & 12 USSR, 1978 | Fly-by, 2 landers | Landers investigated structure and composition of atmosphere and clouds, measured solar radiation | Atmospheric dynamics were studied by Doppler tracking |
Venera 13 & 14 USSR, 1982 | Fly-by, 2 landers | Landers returned the first colour panoramic views of the surface | Conducted soil analysis, found leucite basalt (rare on Earth) and tholeiitic basalt |
Venera 15 & 16 USSR, 1983 | 2 orbiters | Radar mapping of the surface | Detailed study of mesosphere and cloud tops by high-resolution thermal emission spectroscopy |
Vega 1 & 2 USSR, 1985 | Flybys, 1 lander and 1 balloon each | En route to Comet Halley, dropped first balloons into atmosphere of another planet, to record winds | Landers provided precise temperature profiles down to surface |
Magellan NASA, 1990–1994 | Orbiter | First almost-global radar mapping of the surface | |
Galileo NASA, 1990 | Flyby en route to Jupiter | Spectral imaging of night-side near-infrared emissions | Detection of radio waves possibly emitted by lightning |
NASA/ESA/ASI, 1998 & 1999 | Flybys en route to Saturn | Spectral imaging of night-side near-infrared emissions | |
ESA, 2006–2014 | Orbiter | ||
Messenger NASA, 2006 & 2007 | Flybys en route to Mercury | Visible and near-infrared imaging of the upper atmosphere | |
Akatsuki JAXA, 2015– | Orbiter | Imaging of the atmosphere with in infrared, visible, and ultraviolet wavelengths | Investigates the flow and make-up of clouds, and looks for lightning and volcanic activity |
Parker Solar Probe | Flybys to bend orbit closer to the Sun | Imaging of Venus in visible to near-infrared light | |
Flybys en route to Mercury | Imaging in visible light, accelerometer, particle and magnetometer data | Joint flyby observations with Akatsuki in 2020 and Solar Orbiter in 2021 | |
Flybys to tilt orbit around the Sun | Magnetic, plasma and particle measurements | Joint flyby observations with BepiColombo in 2021 |
Venus Express was Europe's first mission dedicated to studying Venus, orbiting the hot planet from 2006 to 2014. The only other Venus orbiter is JAXA's ongoing Akatsuki mission; after a failed orbital insertion manouevre in 2010 it made a successful second attempt in 2015.
But despite the intensive past exploration of the planet, many of the planet’s peculiar features remain unexplained.
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Envision
Future plans
ESA's next Venus orbiter will be Envision, which will be the first mission to provide a holistic view of the planet from its inner core to upper atmosphere. By studying all of Venus's different layers – and how they interact – Envision hopes to determine how and why Venus and Earth evolved so differently. The mission was selected by ESA’s Science Programme Committee on 10 June 2021 as the fifth Medium-class mission in the Agency’s Cosmic Vision plan, targeting a launch in the early 2030s.
NASA has also selected two new missions to Venus as part of its Discovery Program, each expected to launch in the 2028-2030 timeframe: DAVINCI+ (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging) and VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy).
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