- The Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) is teaming up with its French counterpart CNES, to launch a mission to Venus.
- This mission will be launched in 2025 when the Earth and Venus’ axes are perfectly aligned.
- The scientists have procured high-tech equipment called VIRAL from Russia to study Venus’ toxic atmosphere and beyond.
The Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) is the premier space research and exploration body in India. Riding along the boom in the space sector being witnessed across various nations around the globe, ISRO has declared an important mission. A mission to the planet Venus.
Venus is the second planet from the Sun and is noted as the second brightest entity to be visualized in Earth’s night sky after the Moon. The list of countries planning missions to Venus is long and includes the United States and China.
A novel mission
ISRO is on the verge of creating history and making a major breakthrough in our country’s recurrent success in space exploration missions. They are planning to launch the first of its kind, Indian-made independent spacecraft.
Shri Somnath, the chairperson of ISRO announced that this launch aims to find out what exactly lies beneath the planet’s thick clouds which are very toxic in nature.
The planet is wrapped entirely in a 20 km-thick veil of carbon dioxide and sulphuric dioxide haze. These sulfur clouds in Venus’ atmosphere have hindered proper research into the planet and its properties for years.
The mission is set to commence somewhere around 2025 and ISRO won’t be alone as they will be assisted and accompanied by the French Space agency – National Center for Space Studies (CNES). The year was chosen appropriately so as to allow the perfect alignment of Earth and Venus’ axis.
ISRO chairman K Sivan and CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall held talks and reviewed the areas driving cooperation between France and India in space. This is the first time a French payload will be flown on an Indian exploration mission.
India and France are also working on ISRO’s human space mission Gaganyaan project, which aims to send three Indians to space by 2022. Apart from France, India shares robust international relationships with both the United States and Russia.
A round of developing technology
ISRO’s developments and preparations are expected to be completed by the end of 2024. The scientists are tasked with building a specialized high-resolution synthetic aperture radar that will enable them to penetrate the toxic clouds on Venus and look beyond. This is the first-ever mission that will aim to look a few hundred meters into the subsurface level of the planet.
A piece of equipment known as The VIRAL (Venus Infrared Atmospheric Gases Linker) instrument co-developed with the Russian federal space agency Roscosmos and the LATMOS atmospheres, environments, and space observations laboratory has been specially procured by ISRO for this mission.
Following the successful signal via the probe, next the process of an orbital maneuver would commence testing the craft before the actual mission takes place.
An orbital maneuver is nothing but a procedure where the propulsion systems are controlled to shift the orbit of a system. This is like a raincheck to ensure that a spacecraft can enter the planet’s orbit without any hassles and troubles.
2025 – The chosen year
Scientists chose this particular year, not on a random basis but to make sure the mission is successful.
In the year 2025, a great alignment is expected to occur between Venus and our own planet. Owing to this phenomenon, the crafts which would be involved in the mission would require the least propellant to successfully enter into orbit and make the mission a success.
After this favorable window, the possibility of such a phenomenon happening again is sometime in 2031.
Surely this upcoming mission would give a closer perspective of the mysteries that lie on the surface of the planet and the reason why it became an orb of an inferno. Hopefully, after the raging success of the Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan) and Moon missions Chandrayaan-1 and 2, ISRO will set its flag on Venus with great pride as well.
