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NASA’s “Return To Venus” Mission May Have Just Become Collateral Damage

BY DR. ALFREDO CARPINETI

 

The VERITAS mission has been delayed and likely won’t launch until the 2030s.

It was a dramatic week for Venus last week at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference held in Texas. It was revealed that there are likely still active volcanos on Venus, which got people really excited about NASA’s imminent return to Earth’s hellish twin. But then it turned out that almost all the funding for its VERITAS mission had been pulled, resulting in the delay of said return to Venus.

Back in 2021, NASA announced two Discovery missions would return to Venus: DAVINCI+ (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging – the plus was dropped last year), a probe that will plunge through the planet’s dense atmosphere collecting detailed measurements, and VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy), to investigate if Venus has or had plate tectonics and establish if there are still active volcanos on Venus. Launch dates were estimated for 2028-2030 with budgets of $500 million each (not huge as missions go).

However, amid a report on why the Psyche mission missed its 2022 launch, which detailed significant issues at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) where VERITAS was being prepared, it was announced last November the VERITAS mission was to be postponed.

 

 

 

Read Full Article Here… (iflscience.com)

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