After the historic success of the Moon mission, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman S Somanath said that the mission to Venus, the brightest planet in the solar system, has already been configured. He also added that payloads have been developed for the future mission. The ISRO chief made these remarks while addressing the Indian National Science Academy in Delhi. "We have a lot of missions in the conceptual phase. A mission to Venus is already configured. Payloads have already developed for it," he said.
What ISRO chief said about Venus?
Speaking further Somnath added that Venus is an interesting planet and that exploring it will aid in resolving several issues in the field of space science. "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 remarked.
The second planet from the Sun and the nearest planetary neighbour to Earth is Venus. It is one of the four inner, rocky terrestrial planets and is frequently referred to be Earth's twin owing to similarities in size and density. 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's trip to Venus
Notably, the Parker Solar Probe of NASA has visited Venus several times. On February 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.
India's success in space arena
Meanwhile, following the triumphant soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the lunar South Pole, ISRO launched the Aditya-L1 Mission to study the Sun in unprecedented detail. In the last six decades, India has rapidly ascended as a global frontrunner in space technology and exploration, with much credit attributed to the ISRO.
It is worth mentioning here that ISRO's laurels extend to space exploration as well, with feats like the Chandrayaan missions for lunar exploration, the Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan) in 2013—India's inaugural interplanetary expedition—and the initiation of AstroSat in 2015, marking the country's first dedicated astronomical pursuit.
(With inputs from ANI)
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