ISRO’s Venus mission, called Shukrayaan I, was expected to be launched in December 2024, however, the organisation is yet to receive approval from the Indian government for the Venus mission and that the mission could as a result be postponed to 2031. (Source: The Hindu)
- This was stated by P. Sreekumar, the Satish Dhawan Professor at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and advisor to its space science programme.
About Shukrayaan I
- Optimal launch windows from Earth to Venus occur once around every 19 months. This is why ISRO has ‘backup’ launch dates in 2026 and 2028 should it miss the 2024 opportunity. But even more optimal windows, which further reduce the amount of fuel required at liftoff, come around every eight years.
- Shukrayaan I will be an orbiter mission.
- Its scientific payloads currently include a high-resolution synthetic aperture radar and a ground-penetrating radar.
- The mission is expected to study Venus’s geological and volcanic activity, emissions on the ground, wind speed, cloud cover, and other planetary characteristics from an elliptical orbit.
About Venus
- Venus is the second planet from the Sun and is Earth’s closest planetary neighbor.
- It’s one of the four inner, terrestrial (or rocky) planets, and it’s often called Earth’s twin because it’s similar in size and density.
- These are not identical twins, however – there are radical differences between the two worlds.
- Venus has a thick, toxic atmosphere filled with carbon dioxide and it’s perpetually shrouded in thick, yellowish clouds of sulfuric acid that trap heat, causing a runaway greenhouse effect.
- It’s the hottest planet in our solar system, even though Mercury is closer to the Sun. Surface temperatures on Venus are about 900 degrees Fahrenheit (475 degrees Celsius).
- The surface is a rusty color and it’s peppered with intensely crunched mountains and thousands of large volcanoes.
- Scientists think it’s possible some volcanoes are still active.
- Venus has crushing air pressure at its surface – more than 90 times that of Earth – similar to the pressure you’d encounter a mile below the ocean on Earth.
- Another big difference from Earth – Venus rotates on its axis backward, compared to most of the other planets in the solar system. This means that, on Venus, the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east, opposite to what we experience on Earth. (It’s not the only planet in our solar system with such an oddball rotation – Uranus spins on its side.)
Venus missions
- Venus was the first planet to be explored by a spacecraft – NASA’s Mariner 2 successfully flew by and scanned the cloud-covered world on Dec. 14, 1962.
- More recent Venus missions include ESA’s Venus Express (which orbited from 2006 until 2016) and Japan’s Akatsuki Venus Climate Orbiter (orbiting since 2016).
- In June 2021, three new missions to Venus were announced.
- NASA announced two new missions (VERITAS and DAVINCI), and ESA announced one (EnVision).
