Rocket Lab introduces world's first private mission to Venus; launch targeted in 2023

US-based aerospace company Rocket Lab, on Wednesday, introduced its next mission which involves sending a probe to Venus. Targeted for launch in May 2023, this would mark the first endeavour to the dreadful planet by a private company. According to Rocket Lab, the mission would be launched using its Electron rocket and the secondary Photon spacecraft that recently launched NASA’s CAPSTONE mission to the Moon.

Mission profile

Rocket Lab's Venus mission is supported by a research team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the company explained the mission profile in an official document released earlier today. The mission which involves a probe weighing approximately 20 kg will be fitted inside the Photon spacecraft mounted atop the Electron rocket standing 18 meters tall. Electron is Rocket Lab's dedicated launch vehicle which can lift payloads up to 300 kg to a 500 km orbit from both of the company's launch sites in the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand and on Wallops Island, Virginia.

A few minutes after the launch, the Photon spacecraft will separate from Electron's second stage and will be injected into a circular parking orbit at an altitude of roughly 165 km from Earth. Over the next few weeks, the Photon will carry out a series of burns through which it will maintain a constant perigee (closest position to Earth) while raising the apogee (farthest position from Earth) altitude.

(Illustration showing planned orbit-raising maneuvers; Image: Rocket Lab)

These maneuvers will be carried out until the Photon escapes the Earth's orbit with a gravitational slingshot and head toward Venus. Finally in October 2023, the spacecraft will deploy the probe for a direct entry through the Venusian atmosphere. 

Mission objectives

Rocket Lab listed four major objectives that it aims to complete through its maiden Venus mission which are:

• Search for habitable conditions and signs of life in Venus’s cloud layer
• Mature the interplanetary Photon spacecraft
• Demonstrate high-performance, low-cost, fast-turnaround deep space entry mission delivering Decadal-class science with small spacecraft and small launch vehicles
• Take the first step in a campaign of small missions to better understand Venus

(Rocket Lab's Venus probe; Image: Rocket Lab)

With one kg of science instruments, the probe will perform science operations between an altitude of 45 to 60 kilometres in the Venusian atmosphere. "The mission is the first opportunity to probe the Venus cloud particles directly in nearly four decades. Even with the mass and data rate constraints and the limited time in the Venus atmosphere, breakthrough science is possible", the company said in a statement.