New NASA missions to Venus: ‘Amazing how little we know’ | abroad

NASA has $500 million for each “sister mission”. This should measure the composition of Venus’s atmosphere and explain why the planet evolved so differently from Earth. This can also provide insight into the global warming effect.

The high-resolution images are supposed to be transmitted of a unique geological “mosaic” that can resemble continents. It is also examined whether there are oceans on Venus. NASA CEO Bill Nelson said the missions “provide the entire scientific community an opportunity to explore a planet we haven’t visited in more than 30 years.”

‘just awesome’

German, French and Italian space agencies are involved. NASA’s head of science finds it “astounding” how little knowledge there is about Venus, but he expects to know a lot about everything from volcanoes to the heart of Venus. “It would be as if we rediscovered the planet.”

NASA’s last trip to Venus, Magellan, arrived in 1990. Since then, other missions have circled the planet with an average temperature of 460 degrees.