NASA releases incredible video on Venus-bound DAVINCI mission; Watch

The time is approaching when NASA will send a probe to map the planet with the most harrowing conditions in the entire solar system, our next-door neighbour Venus. Aiming for launch at this decade's end, the agency will commence the Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging or DAVINCI mission to settle the dispute if Venus ever boasted living conditions like Earth. And to make you excited for the mission at the earliest, NASA has released a trailer of the mission, providing insight on how the probes plan to solve the mysteries shrouding Venus. Check out the video below. 

The mission profile for DAVINCI

The spacecraft sent under the DAVINCI mission will leave Earth with numerous instruments in order to study the formation, evolution, and composition of the Earth's sister planet. To be launched in 2029, the mission is divided into two segments, the first being a couple of flybys of Venus, and the second being dropping a probe through Venus' thick clouds. Initially, the DAVINCI carrier, relay, and imaging spacecraft, using the Compact Ultraviolet to Visible Imaging Spectrometer (CUVIS), will examine the planet’s dayside and collect data about unknown compounds in Venus' upper atmosphere. In the second flyby, the Venus Imaging System for Observational Reconnaissance (VISOR) will examine the nightside of Venus in infrared to understand how the highlands in the planet formed.

Seven months after the second flyby, DAVINCI will release its atmospheric descent probe, which will pierce through Venus' thick clouds, which are majorly composed of carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid clouds. Just so you get an idea, Venus' atmosphere is 90 times denser than our planet. Once the probe is released, it will descend to the region called Alpha Regio Tesserae, while providing data about Venus' atmosphere until it reaches the surface. NASA believes that it is this region that may hold clues to the planet’s mysterious past in its rocks. Moreover, it said that the set of data extracted from the DAVINCI mission will help understand the history of Venus and similar other planets out in the universe. 

Earlier in July this year, NASA had announced another Venus bound mission named Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy or VERITAS that is expected to launch around the same time as DAVINCI.

Image: NASAGoddard