[imagesource: NASA illustration]

NASA is planning to plunge a nifty little spacecraft called DAVINCI through Venus’ hellish atmosphere.

The space agency is hoping the probe will be able to collect data about the relatively unknown planet as it sinks through layers of sulphuric clouds, intense heat (471 degrees Celsius), and choking carbon dioxide.

If Venus sounds inhospitable, that’s because it is. But the scientists over at NASA are curious to see if the second planet from the Sun ever housed any life before, especially considering how similar it is to Earth.

Gizmodo was right in referring to Venus’ thick, steamy atmosphere as “planetary hell”, something the DAVINCI – short for Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging – will have to survive when it is sent on its mission in 2029.

The daring mission will have the probe ingest Venus’ gases for approximately one hour before landing on the volcano-laden surface, according to a paper published in The Planetary Science Journal.

Acting as a sort of flying chemistry lab, DAVINCI will use its built-in instruments to analyse all things Venus, including what makes its atmosphere, temperatures, pressure, and wind speed.

All the while, images will be snapped, which are likely to be unprecedented.

Image: NASA illustration

Here’s more from Paul Byrne, associate professor of Earth and Planetary Science at Washington University in St. Louis:

“Venus’s atmosphere holds the chemical clues to understanding a whole host of aspects of that planet, including what its starting composition was and how its climate has evolved through time,” Byrne [said].

“The DAVINCI team in particular is hoping to establish whether Venus really did have oceans of liquid water in its past, and if so when, and why, those oceans were lost.”

This video also explains the mission and more about how DAVINCI will measure Venus’ atmosphere:

NASA’s last mission to Venus wrapped up science operations in 1994, so this upcoming mission is a long time coming.

[source:gizmodo]