Venus death dive to unlock secrets of Earth's evil twin

Starting 18 June, the Venus Express probe will start dipping into the atmosphere of Venus and taking measurements of never before explored regions. It will record information about density and composition.

For its swansong, Venus Express will perform aerobraking, a way to reduce the speed of a spacecraft and so reduce its altitude. This lets an orbiting probe get much closer to a planet's surface and study it in greater detail.

The problem is that ESA has never before attempted aerobraking, and these dives into the atmosphere may very well mean the end of the probe's service. If everything goes well, the probe will perform dives until 11 July and then return to a higher orbit around Venus once again until its fuel runs out.

"Venus is like a controlled experiment: what would happen if you took another Earth and started it off in slightly different conditions," says David Grinspoon, a NASA astrobiologist who worked on Venus Express.

During its eight years in orbit, the Venus Express mission has made many discoveries about our "evil twin", most notably about the planet's wind patterns.

"It has really been our first weather satellite on another planet," says Grinspoon. "A lot of advantages have come from observing it over a long period of time and seeing the patterns of changes in the atmosphere."

It would be a shame to see such a useful probe take a death dive, but the information it's going to provide us with will without doubt be very useful to science.

Source: NewScientist, Venus death dive to unlock secrets of Earth's evil twin.

I wonder how long it will survive. Venus has very violent weather. Sulfuric acid rains in the atmosphere, lightning, intense heat. Even the lead is liquid in that heat. Also the surface is covered by volcanoes.

Last time in 1985 Soviet Union dropped 2 probes there, they survived 46 hours in the atmosphere. They were at the altitude of 53 km. Its interesting to return there after so many years.

"Venus is like a controlled experiment: what would happen if you took another Earth and started it off in slightly different conditions," says David Grinspoon, a NASA astrobiologist who worked on Venus Express

Well, if Venus was another earth starting out in different conditions, than I presume the life there....like Earth exists....only with slightly different variations.

Perhaps BIG eyes to see through all the sulfur with limited Sun from all thick atmosphere not letting in light. Might even turn a pale grey to grayish-green from have sulfuric skin composition and I'd wager much smaller, say like 3 feet because the chemical complexities of Venus make it harder for the body (indigenous our not) to breakdown such complex chemicals. Because of the thicker atmosphere trying to fly a winged craft would be death, all that friction would burn it up, but a reflective egg shape saucer type craft should do the trick.

Its ironic how they call Venus the "evil twin", when you consider what actually goes on down here on planet earth.

But I am interested in knowing more about Venus, so I hope this mission is a success.

originally posted by: Rosinitiate

"Venus is like a controlled experiment: what would happen if you took another Earth and started it off in slightly different conditions," says David Grinspoon, a NASA astrobiologist who worked on Venus Express

Well, if Venus was another earth starting out in different conditions, than I presume the life there....like Earth exists....only with slightly different variations.

Perhaps BIG eyes to see through all the sulfur with limited Sun from all thick atmosphere not letting in light. Might even turn a pale grey to grayish-green from have sulfuric skin composition and I'd wager much smaller, say like 3 feet because the chemical complexities of Venus make it harder for the body (indigenous our not) to breakdown such complex chemicals. Because of the thicker atmosphere trying to fly a winged craft would be death, all that friction would burn it up, but a reflective egg shape saucer type craft should do the trick.

Sadly I think that if life did emerge on Venus it would have long since been snuffed out. The pressure and sulphuric acid rain is one thing, but the periodic total resurfacing events are another. That's one nasty, nasty, planet.

a reply to: AngryCymraeg

Do as the Ant People did....burrow underground.

Only less evolved people would mill about on a planets surface exposing themselves to natures harshness.