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
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
Category
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TechTranscript
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.