June 4: NASA’s Discovery Program is a program that gives scientists and engineers an opportunity to explore the solar system and develop missions funded by NASA. NASA finalized two missions: DAVINCI+ (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble Gases, Chemistry, and Imaging) and VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy) from the program and will be funding $500 million per mission for development.
The DAVINCI+ mission aims to calculate the composition of Venus’s atmosphere to understand its formation, discover if the planet ever had an ocean, and capture high-resolution pictures of tesserae. Tesserae are heavily deformed terrain on Venus, which are a unique feature of the planet.
The VERITAS mission aims to map the surface of Venus to understand the planet’s geologic history and to deduce a reason for the difference in its structure from Earth. It will chart the surface elevations and will map infrared emissions from the surface of Venus to deduce the rock types and find out if the active volcanoes are responsible for sending water vapour into the atmosphere.
Both the missions will be launched between 2028 and 2030.
By Himasutha Reddy
