Missions to analyze Venus’ atmosphere and map its surface as well as explore the moons of both Jupiter and Neptune have been selected as possible scientific investigations of the next Discovery Program.
Launched in 1992, the Discovery Program offers the scientific community the opportunity to assemble a team and design investigations that complement NASA's larger planetary science explorations, focusing specifically on exploiting the secrets of the Solar System through planets, moons, comets and asteroids.
The four possible missions will receive $3 million to fully develop their concepts and provide a final report. One completed in 9 months, NASA will make its final selection of up to two missions to launch into space. The proposals were chosen based on their potential science value and feasibility of development plans following a competitive peer-review process. Importantly, the missions comprise targets and science not currently covered by NASA’s active missions.
According to NASA, the selected research projects include the following.
1) DAVINCI+ (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging Plus)
Mission: Analyze Venus’ atmosphere to understand how it formed and evolved; determine whether the planet ever had an ocean.
Instrumentation: A descent sphere is designed to protect the instruments from the inhospitable environment of Venus. The imaging component of the mission includes cameras on the descent sphere and orbiter that will map surface rock-type.
Result: The results have the potential to reshape our understanding of terrestrial planet formation in our solar system and beyond.
2) VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy)
Mission: Map Venus’ surface to determine the planet’s geologic history.
Instrumentation: A synthetic aperture radar will orbit Venus to chart surface elevations to create 3-D reconstructions of topography and confirm whether processes, such as plate tectonics and volcanism, are still active on the planet.
Result: Mapping infrared emissions from the surface of Venus will provide clues as to the geology of Venus, which is currently largely unknown. Better understanding of the planet’s geologic history may explain why it developed so differently than Earth.
3) Io Volcano Observer (IVO)
Mission: Explore IO, Jupiter’s moon, to learn how tidal forces shape planetary bodies.
Instrumentation: Using close-in flybys, IVO will assess how magma is generated and erupted on Io, which is the most volcanically active body in the solar system.
Result: The results could revolutionize our understanding of the formation and evolution of rocky, terrestrial bodies, as well as icy ocean worlds in our solar system, and extrasolar planets across the universe.
4) TRIDENT
Mission: Explore Triton to understand pathways to habitable worlds extremely far from the Sun.
Instrumentation: A single fly-by that will map the surface of the icy moon of Neptune, characterize active processes and determine whether the predicted subsurface ocean exists.
Result: Build off the results of NASA’s Voyager 2 mission that showed Triton has active resurfacing with the potential for erupting plumes and an interior ocean as well as an atmosphere and an ionosphere that can create organic snow.
Information courtesy of NASA. Photo credit: NASA.