TY - JOUR
T1 - Understanding Venus: An International Effort
AU - Limaye, Sanjay
AU - Helbert, Jorn
AU - Marcq, Emmanuel
AU - Wilson, Colin, , DR.
AU - Cutts, James
AU - Ghail, Richard
PY - 2018/7/1
Y1 - 2018/7/1
N2 - Within five years of the dawn of the space age with Sputnik, the Mariner
2 fly-by (1962) and Venera-4 probe's entry (1967) into another
atmosphere demonstrated that our nearest neighbor was a world very
different from our own home planet. With regular launches from the
Soviet Union in the early decades of exploration of Venus and missions
launched by NASA, the knowledge about Venus grew significantly. It was
only after the COSPAR general assembly held in Philadelphia in 1976 that
collaboration began between US and USSR with exchange of data, leading
to some small joint efforts with the Pioneer Venus Orbiter and Probe
missions (1978-1983) followed by collaboration in planning and carrying
out the VeGa mission in 1985 involving many countries. The nearly
two-dozen missions flown to Venus have painted a puzzling picture of
Venus. Presently JAXA's Akatsuki orbiter is collecting observations that
are adding more questions about the planet. They can be summed up by
perhaps just one question: why did Venus evolve so differently from
Earth? What we have learnt from the many missions to Venus is that to
understand Venus, we need to observe its surface, sample its deep
atmosphere, explore its magnetosphere and ionosphere, infer the interior
structure and monitor the deep, global cloud cover. Just like Earth is
being observed by multiple spacecraft in different orbits, airplanes,
ships, automated surface and ocean stations, observing Venus and its
environment requires a combination of platforms. Single, focused
missions are effective at tackling some of the questions about Venus,
but the synergy of near simultaneous and long term monitoring of Venus
is needed for a better understanding of the planet.The International
space agencies and scientists have been considering various approaches
to exploring Venus through small and large missions. The Venus
Exploration Analysis Group (NASA) has developed a Venus Exploration
Roadmap and a comprehensive list of goals, objectives and investigations
(www.lpi.usra.edu/vexag). Venus science and questions for future
missions have been periodically discussed by international Venus
scientists at dedicated conferences. Following discussions at such
meetings, the International Venus Exploring Working Group was formed
during the 2012 general assembly in Mysore India to promote
collaboration among the global Venus scientific community and
coordination of efforts to explore Venus by the spacefaring nations,
which worked so successfully for the VeGa, Venus Express and Akatsuki
missions in particular. At present a collaborative effort limited to
Roscosmos and NASA is being conducted by the Joint Science Definition
Team assembled to study the implementation approach for Russia's
Venera-D mission. It is recognized that Venera-D would represent an
important piece of an international Venus exploration strategy. Leading
up to and following this step an ongoing effort and additional missions
by all space agencies are desirable to address the many un-answered
questions. ESA is currently evaluating EnVision, a proposed mission that
could carry a small contributed probe (such as those being studied by
NASA), allowing for a coordinated and complementary international
exploration plan. Such a plan is needed to maximise the returns from
future Venus exploration.
AB - Within five years of the dawn of the space age with Sputnik, the Mariner
2 fly-by (1962) and Venera-4 probe's entry (1967) into another
atmosphere demonstrated that our nearest neighbor was a world very
different from our own home planet. With regular launches from the
Soviet Union in the early decades of exploration of Venus and missions
launched by NASA, the knowledge about Venus grew significantly. It was
only after the COSPAR general assembly held in Philadelphia in 1976 that
collaboration began between US and USSR with exchange of data, leading
to some small joint efforts with the Pioneer Venus Orbiter and Probe
missions (1978-1983) followed by collaboration in planning and carrying
out the VeGa mission in 1985 involving many countries. The nearly
two-dozen missions flown to Venus have painted a puzzling picture of
Venus. Presently JAXA's Akatsuki orbiter is collecting observations that
are adding more questions about the planet. They can be summed up by
perhaps just one question: why did Venus evolve so differently from
Earth? What we have learnt from the many missions to Venus is that to
understand Venus, we need to observe its surface, sample its deep
atmosphere, explore its magnetosphere and ionosphere, infer the interior
structure and monitor the deep, global cloud cover. Just like Earth is
being observed by multiple spacecraft in different orbits, airplanes,
ships, automated surface and ocean stations, observing Venus and its
environment requires a combination of platforms. Single, focused
missions are effective at tackling some of the questions about Venus,
but the synergy of near simultaneous and long term monitoring of Venus
is needed for a better understanding of the planet.The International
space agencies and scientists have been considering various approaches
to exploring Venus through small and large missions. The Venus
Exploration Analysis Group (NASA) has developed a Venus Exploration
Roadmap and a comprehensive list of goals, objectives and investigations
(www.lpi.usra.edu/vexag). Venus science and questions for future
missions have been periodically discussed by international Venus
scientists at dedicated conferences. Following discussions at such
meetings, the International Venus Exploring Working Group was formed
during the 2012 general assembly in Mysore India to promote
collaboration among the global Venus scientific community and
coordination of efforts to explore Venus by the spacefaring nations,
which worked so successfully for the VeGa, Venus Express and Akatsuki
missions in particular. At present a collaborative effort limited to
Roscosmos and NASA is being conducted by the Joint Science Definition
Team assembled to study the implementation approach for Russia's
Venera-D mission. It is recognized that Venera-D would represent an
important piece of an international Venus exploration strategy. Leading
up to and following this step an ongoing effort and additional missions
by all space agencies are desirable to address the many un-answered
questions. ESA is currently evaluating EnVision, a proposed mission that
could carry a small contributed probe (such as those being studied by
NASA), allowing for a coordinated and complementary international
exploration plan. Such a plan is needed to maximise the returns from
future Venus exploration.
M3 - Article
VL - 42
JO - 42nd COSPAR Scientific Assembly. Held 14-22 July 2018, in Pasadena, California, USA
JF - 42nd COSPAR Scientific Assembly. Held 14-22 July 2018, in Pasadena, California, USA
ER -