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Space NASA

NASA Plans Blockbuster Return To Venus (sciencemag.org) 61

sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: Venus can no longer wait. NASA will send two new robotic missions to Earth's hothouse twin, the agency's new administrator, Bill Nelson, announced this afternoon at his "State of NASA" speech here at the agency's headquarters. The missions, together costing up to $1 billion, mark NASA's first visit to the planet since the early 1990s, whereas nearby Mars has seen a host of robotic visitors. They're expected to launch by the decade's end.

The scientific case for exploring Venus has long been strong. No planet has more to say about how Earth came to be. Mars is tiny and frozen, its heat and atmosphere largely lost to space long ago. Venus could host active volcanoes, and it may have once featured oceans and continents, which are critical to the evolution of life. Plate tectonics roughly like Earth's might have held sway there, or might be starting today, hidden under the clouds. Venus also proves by example that orbiting within a star's "habitable zone" doesn't guarantee a planet is suitable for life. Understanding how Venus's atmosphere went bad and turned into a runaway greenhouse, boiling away any oceans and baking the surface, could help astronomers studying other solar systems distinguish truly Earth-like exoplanets from our evil twins.

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NASA Plans Blockbuster Return To Venus

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  • Why? (Score:3, Funny)

    by nagora ( 177841 ) on Thursday June 03, 2021 @02:48AM (#61449760)

    Can they not get Netflix there or something?

  • by clickclickdrone ( 964164 ) on Thursday June 03, 2021 @03:13AM (#61449814)
    I thought they were building a video rental store on Venus. truly disappointed now.
  • And the James Webb telescope still sits in storage waiting for the money for a launch.

    • by gtall ( 79522 )

      The ability to walk and chew gum at the same time is an amazing ability. You might want to look into it at some point.

    • And the James Webb telescope still sits in storage waiting for the money for a launch.

      The delays to the Webb telescope aren't due to the inability to pay for the launch.

      Some of the delays are due to the launch vehicle ( https://www.digitaltrends.com/... [digitaltrends.com] ) but not due to waiting for funding.

  • by betsuin ( 5812894 ) on Thursday June 03, 2021 @07:01AM (#61450080)
    WTF? "$ wasted, what for?" Seriously.

    Go NASA! Go for it and it won't be easy, the mission may even crash and burn (literally).
    But it is nothing ventured, nothing gained.

    And for the "nay sayers" - you know where your place in history is.
  • ONLY reason to go to Venus.

    NASA wants to see what China’s Spacetug does.

    • by gtall ( 79522 )

      Or, to inspect a planet not all that different from Earth with a run-away greenhouse effect, regardless of what China's Spacetug does or doesn't do.

  • by Amiga Trombone ( 592952 ) on Thursday June 03, 2021 @07:28AM (#61450148)

    ...someone can't think of a way to move some of the atmosphere of Venus to Mars. It would improve the habitability of both planets.

    • My girlfriend can suck really good...

    • by quenda ( 644621 )

      ...someone can't think of a way to move some of the atmosphere of Venus to Mars.

      Way too much delta-V. Much easier to divert a large number of oort-cloud objects to Mars.
      They are distant, but slow moving, and only need a small nudge to fall toward the inner solar system.
       

      • by harrkev ( 623093 )

        How many of those objects have any appreciable amount of atmosphere?

        • by quenda ( 644621 )

          How many of those objects have any appreciable amount of atmosphere?

          No "atmosphere", they are frozen.

          "the vast majority of Oort Cloud objects are composed of icy volatiles – such as water, methane, ethane, carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, and ammonia."
          https://phys.org/news/2015-08-... [phys.org]

          Don't expect a nice oxygen/ nitrogen atmosphere in a single generation. I think it took the cyanobacteria a few hundred million years on Earth.

    • by Megane ( 129182 )
      All you would need is a really big portal gun and two rockets.
    • by mishehu ( 712452 )
      President Skroob, Dark Helmet, and Colonel Sandurz would like you to meet... *timpani* MEGAMAID.
  • Whatever NASA sends there, I'm curious how long it's expected to survive. Avg surface temps are ~864 F (462 C).

  • 1. Really? They're going to ask funding from Hollywood?
    2. I'm pretty sure the last Blockbuster in Bend, Oregon, does not have enough cash to help them finance this project.

  • by I am Jack's username ( 528712 ) on Thursday June 03, 2021 @08:21AM (#61450310)
    Detecting phosphine there may be the biggest discovery in human history.
  • To be greeted by a Musk sponsored rover.
  • For more than a few minutes/hours?

    None have had much longevity once touching down. Have we discovered new materials that can withstand the extreme heat and sulfuric acid atmosphere? Even low orbit probes would, I think, have a tough go of it.

    That said... I'd love to see some new data from that planet. It's been forever since that last images have been obtained.

    • by Megane ( 129182 )
      There has been talk of using clockwork mechanisms, but I don't think you can do MPEG encoding or RF transmission that way. Silicon carbide is a semiconductor with a melting point of 2830C, so all is not lost. But really, the best way would be to put a probe on a balloon. Just aim for an altitude with STP.
  • "Venus also proves by example that orbiting within a star's "habitable zone" doesn't guarantee a planet is suitable for life." Venus is something like 70% of the distance from the Sun that Earth is, meaning it receives almost twice as much sunlight. Does its temperature have nothing to do with that? Or asking this question differently: What would Venus' surface temperature be if its atmosphere were Earth-like? (And similarly for Mars: if its atmosphere were Earth-like, what would its surface temperature

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