NASA announces two new missions to Venus after 30 years

WASHINGTON: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced two missions to Venus between 2028 and 2030 in terms of examining the planet's atmosphere and geological features.

Each mission has been awarded a fund of $ 500 million.

"The missions will offer the chance to investigate a planet we have not been to in more than 30 years," said Bill Nelson, NASA administrator.

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The last mission to Venus was the Magellan orbiter in 1990. The planet is an arduous task due to its position, which is very close to the sun and has a surface temperature of 500C-, which could melt lead easily.

The Davinci Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging mission will measure the planet's atmosphere to gain insight into how it formed and evolved. It will also aim to determine whether Venus ever had an ocean.

Davinci is expected to return the first high-resolution images of the planet's tesserae, geological features. Scientists believe these features could be comparable to continents on Earth and could suggest that Venus has plate tectonics.

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