All articles tagged with #davinci
Budget pressures threaten NASA's three-mission “decade of Venus” plan, likely leaving only one mission moving forward: DAVINCI, which targets a December 2030 launch and a January 2033 descent probe, as Envision and VERITAS face funding constraints. ESA negotiations over Envision and potential domestication of its radar add to the uncertainty, and missing the 2033 window could push Venus-era delays by years.
Using Finite Element Limit Analysis, researchers estimate Venus could host giant lava tubes hundreds of meters wide—up to about 1 kilometer (0.62 miles)—beneath its harsh surface, forming large subsurface channels; confirming them would require future missions like NASA's DAVINCI and VERITAS to image and probe the subsurface, though extreme conditions and funding debates may delay verification.
Venus will be shining brightly and at its highest point in the sky on June 4th, providing a celestial spectacle visible at sunset. Mars will also be visible nearby as a reddish point of light. NASA has two unmanned missions planned within the decade to explore Venus and learn more about the planet's mysterious and extreme environment, including the DAVINCI mission which will drop a probe to the surface to gather data and take up-close images. These will be the first missions to Venus in almost thirty years.
Delays to NASA's VERITAS mission, originally scheduled to fly in 2027, might affect the two other missions set to explore Venus. The White House's 2024 budget proposal for NASA holds the mission funding for VERITAS at a mere $1.5 million per year for the near future, placing the mission in a "deep freeze." VERITAS was supposed to be the first mission to return to Venus since NASA's Magellan spacecraft orbited it nearly 30 years ago. Its indefinite delay has disbanded the mission's engineering wing, and scientists are now worrying about its impact on two other related missions to Venus.