The mission to the second planet of the solar system is planned to be sent in 2029-2031
The slope of the young Idunn volcano may become the landing site for the Russian spacecraft on Venus. Such a proposal was made during the development of the Venera-D (Venus-Long-living) project after analyzing the latest research data on the second planet of the solar system.
Photo: NPO Lavochkin
As we know, Roscosmos plans to launch its mission to Venus by 2029-2031, for the first time in modern Russian history. The scientific part of Venera-D, for which the scientists of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences are responsible, began to be actively worked out last year, – from 2024, it is planned to start creating a draft design of the device itself, for which NPO them. Lavochkin. But before moving on to the scientific goals of the project, let's briefly recall the results of previous studies.
Venus is very similar in size and mass to the Earth and, most likely, at an early stage evolved according to the same scenario as our planet. Unraveling its mystery would mean unraveling our future. The Soviet Union was the first country to land its apparatus on a hot planet. Starting from 1961, 19 (!) devices were sent to a distance of up to 40 million kilometers. 8 «Venus» and 2 «Vegas» managed to land on the planet, and they transmitted a lot of valuable data to Earth.
Thanks to the Soviet «Venus» people learned that the temperature on the surface of the planet reaches 470 degrees Celsius, pressure — 92 atmospheres, and the clouds are not made of water and ice, like ours, but of droplets of sulfuric acid. Our instruments are the first to measure the level of illumination of the planet under a dense layer of clouds. It turned out that up to 10% of the sun's rays reach it, which is why even during the day deep twilight is observed there, and at night – pitch darkness, because Venus does not have a bright satellite like our moon. Thanks to «Venus» humanity has learned that the surface of the planet of the same name has a reddish tint, and the sky – orange. For the first time, panoramas of — first black and white, and then (from Venera-13 and Venera-14) and color, which made it possible to see its unusual landscape and draw certain conclusions about the geological past. And finally, it was thanks to Soviet scientists that for the first time it was possible to obtain the first maps of the surface of Venus, – they were made using radar from space orbiters. Until 1985, two Soviet Vega-1 spacecraft were also sent to Venus. and «Vega-2». They conducted a study of the soil of Venus and for the first time studied the Venusian atmosphere with the help of balloons separated from them: this was the first experience of aeronautics through an extraterrestrial atmosphere in history.
In the 1960s and 70s, the American orbital interplanetary stations Mariner, Pioneer Venus (Pioner-Venus), Magellan also flew up to Venus; (Magellan). The last few years of work (from 1989 to 1994) managed to carry out a more in-depth mapping of the planet compared to ours and take the most detailed pictures of the entire surface.
11 years after Magellan, in 2005 the European station Venera Express set off for Venus for the first time, and in 2010 — Japanese apparatus «Akatsuki», which still flies. The fact that they managed to explore something new, in contrast to the Soviet «Venus» and «Veg», we asked the leader for the development of the scientific program of the complex of scientific equipment of the space complex «Venera-D» from IKI RAS Dmitry GORINOV.
– One of the discoveries of the «Venus-Express» there were molecular glows in the mesosphere of the planet, which were an important indicator of how other dynamic processes take place in the upper atmosphere, – the scientist says. – For «Venus-Express» a polar orbit was chosen, thanks to which we first saw the pole of Venus with its characteristic dipole vortex. In addition, one of the brightest discoveries was the uneven distribution of the thermal glow of the planet's surface in the infrared range – certain areas of Venus glow brighter than others. Correlating them with a map of the planet, we realized that the detected thermal anomalies could be a sign of active volcanoes from which lava erupts.
As for the Akatsuki apparatus, in 2015 it was put into a highly elongated elliptical orbit around Venus, in which it still flies. On the Japanese device from devices – only cameras. So the one that shoots in the far infrared «saw» an unusual phenomenon: a stationary thermal feature over an equatorial high called Aphrodite's Land. This feature is located at an altitude of about 70 km above the surface.
– To do this, I must first describe to you the atmosphere of Venus. Near its surface, the air is very dense, about 1/10 of the density of water, this is a supercritical state of air that occurs at the highest temperature and pressure. This massive, very heavy atmosphere, moving horizontally, always in the same direction, suddenly collides with a hill, a mountain range. From this interaction, a stationary gravitational wave arises, propagating upwards towards the cloud layer. This process gives rise to a region darkened in the infrared range at the height of the upper boundary of the clouds. At the same time, it should be noted that at an altitude of 70 kilometers, the Venusian wind blows at a tremendous speed (about 100 m/s), bending around the entire planet in 4 days. And this «feature» stands on the equator, surrounded by a powerful atmospheric flow and does not move anywhere.
Help "MK" A Venusian day (243 Earth days) lasts longer than a year (225 Earth days), meaning that the planet rotates faster around the Sun than around its own axis. And the atmosphere of Venus rotates faster than the planet itself, 60 (!) times.
According to Gorinov, there is evidence that such an effect of the surface on the atmospheric circulation exists not only over the Earth of Aphrodite , but also in other places of the planet where there are significant elevations.
These and many other assumptions will have to be tested by the new Venera-D station. Experts are already discussing a landing site for him. In particular, there is an idea to land the device on the slope of the young and most likely active Idunn volcano.
– If we sat down on Idunn (from the Earth volcano Etna is the most similar to it), we could explore fresh (by geological standards) samples of the bowels of Venus, which erupted and flowed down the slope relatively recently, maybe even just a few years ago, – my companion is talking.
– Maybe so, there is a certain risk of losing the apparatus, but Idunn does not erupt 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Like terrestrial volcanoes, it most likely spews lava much less frequently. But, of course, this idea has one more significant disadvantage even without a volcanic eruption. For example, the device will not be too comfortable to land on its sloping slope (although the design in theory can withstand a 15-30-degree slope). Therefore, the most rational place for landing «Venus-D» yet the flat regional plains of Venus are still recognized, containing a representative, widespread type of soil. The scientific research program includes its sampling and research.
– Yes, there were landings earlier, but not aimed, but blindly: both on the plains and on the slopes, however, these were not volcanoes.
– Our lander, by design, should work for about 2 hours. The soil, after sampling from a 3-cm depth, will be analyzed using the most modern instruments: they will determine both the chemical and mineralogical compositions, and the isotope ratios of elements orders of magnitude more accurately than was done before. In the new project, we will again have balloons for a longer and more in-depth study of the atmosphere, composition and parameters of clouds. We will seriously look for biomarkers like phosphine, – it is a sensational topic widely discussed by researchers around the world.
Help "MK". Phosphine – Hydrogen fluoride was detected at the top of Venus' clouds in 2020 by the James Clark Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii and the Atacama Large Millimeter-Wave Array in Chile. It is known that phosphine is produced by microorganisms, but it can also have another, for example, volcanic, origin. Recent studies, moreover, have shown that «Venusian phosphine» in terms of its spectral features, it is close to sulfur dioxide, which calls into question the fact of its presence in the atmosphere.
– Together with the Americans, we planned to send long-lived landing stations to Venus that could work up to 30-60 days. These vehicles were to be built with high-temperature electronics capable of withstanding the harsh conditions of Venus. Such a period of operation of the equipment would make it possible for the first time to study the seismic activity of the planet.
– Long-lived landing stations, unfortunately, were not included in any of the projects they are currently developing. The missions planned by NASA and ESA mostly consist of only orbiters. However, the Americans in their DAVINCI (Da Vinci) project have a descent vehicle, but it does not involve a soft landing, its main purpose will be to conduct atmospheric measurements during the descent in the atmosphere.
In general, we need to wait another six to eight years, and we will see if our scientists, designers will be able to regain the previous technological advantage in research in the most favorable to us in past, «Russian» planet Venus.