Exploring Venus With NASA's DAVINCI Mission

Space.com

NASA Deep Atmosphere of Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging” (DAVINCI) will launch to Venus in 2029 and includes an atmospheric descent probe.   Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center  James Tralie (ADNET): Lead Producer Lead Editor  Giada Arney (NASA): Narrator  Walt Feimer (KBRwyle): Animator  Jonathan North (KBRwyle): Animator  Michael Lentz (KBRwyle): Animator  Krystofer Kim (KBRwyle): Animator  James Garvin (NASA, Chief Scientist Goddard): Scientist  Music: "Blackened Skies" by Enrico Cacace and Lorenzo Castellarin of Universal Production Music

Transcript

00:00 It's 900 degrees hot at the surface, has powerful high altitude winds, and is blanketed by a

00:08 dense carbon dioxide atmosphere.

00:11 The planet Venus.

00:12 Although the same size and density as Earth, the similarities end there.

00:17 Earth has water and light.

00:19 Venus is desolate, dry, apparently lightless.

00:23 [Music]

00:30 The DAVINCI mission, named after Leonardo da Vinci, will now take us back to Venus and

00:36 address unresolved questions about this mysterious planet.

00:40 This exciting new mission will launch in June 2029.

00:44 During two gravity-assist flybys, da Vinci will study the cloud tops in ultraviolet light,

00:50 tracking cloud motions, and analyzing mysterious ultraviolet-absorbing chemicals.

00:56 Both flybys will also examine nightside heat emanating from the surface.

01:02 These geological clues will paint a global picture of surface composition and its evolution.

01:08 Seven months after our second flyby, da Vinci will release its atmospheric descent probe,

01:13 which will enter the atmosphere over the course of two days.

01:17 The probe will take about an hour to fall through the atmosphere, taking measurements

01:21 down to the surface.

01:23 These measurements will include profiles of composition, winds, temperature, pressure,

01:28 and acceleration.

01:30 Key gases will help us understand how Venus formed and evolved.

01:35 Some of these measurements may even reveal signatures of ancient water.

01:40 The spherical probe houses the state-of-the-art instruments that will work together to address

01:45 questions about the Venus atmosphere, protecting them from the extreme temperatures, high pressures,

01:51 and acidic clouds in the environment.

01:53 Da Vinci's camera peers down through a small viewing port, and once the probe passes below

01:59 the clouds, it will start to collect a series of three-dimensional views that will also

02:03 help us understand whether the rocks of the Alpha Regiohighland region reveal a story

02:09 of an ancient continent shaped by water.

02:12 An oxygen-sensing student collaboration experiment will reveal the role of this gas in the deep

02:18 atmosphere.

02:19 The discoveries that emerge from this diverse dataset will help tell us whether Venus was

02:24 once habitable.

02:26 And the story that we reveal will reach even beyond our solar system to analog exoplanets

02:33 that will be observed with the James Webb Space Telescope.

02:37 Venus is waiting for us all, and Da Vinci is ready to take us there and ignite a new

02:43 Venus renaissance.

Category

Transcript

Recommended