Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman S Somanath said on Tuesday that the mission to Venus is already configured, adding that payloads have been developed for the future mission.
“We have a lot of missions in the conceptual phase. A mission to Venus is already configured. Payloads have already been developed for it,” Somnath said while addressing the Indian National Science Academy in New Delhi.
“Venus is a very interesting planet. It also has an atmosphere. Its atmosphere is so thick. The atmospheric pressure is 100 times that of Earth, and it is full of acids. You cannot penetrate the surface. You don’t know if its surface is hard or not. Why are we trying to understand all of this? Earth could be one day Venus. I don’t know. Maybe 10,000 years later, we (Earth) change our characteristics. Earth was never like this. It was not a habitable place long long back,” he added.
More recent Venus missions include ESA’s Venus Express (which orbited from 2006 until 2016) and Japan’s Akatsuki Venus Climate Orbiter (orbiting since 2016).
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has made multiple flybys of Venus. On Feb. 9, 2022, NASA announced the spacecraft had captured its first visible light images of the surface of Venus from space during its February 2021 flyby.
