GS PAPER III: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.

Context: NASA plans two new missions to Venus, its first in decades

• Venus hides a wealth of information that could help us better understand Earth and exoplanets.
• Scientists believe Venus may once have harbored seas of water potentially suitable for life, before unknown forces triggered its extreme greenhouse effect, vaporising its oceans.
• NASA announced plans to launch a pair of missions to Venus between 2028 and 2030 — its first in decades — to study the atmosphere and geologic features of Earth’s so-called sister planet and better understand why the two emerged so differently.
• The two missions, dubbed DAVINCI+ (short for Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble Gases, Chemistry and Imaging) and VERITAS (an acronym for Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography and Spectroscopy).

DAVINCI+

• It will measure the composition of the dense, hothouse atmosphere of Venus to further understand how it evolved.
• DAVINCI+, consisting of a fly-by spacecraft and an atmospheric descent probe, is also expected to return the first high-resolution images of unique geological characteristics on Venus called "tesserae”.

VERITAS

• It will map the planet's surface from orbit to help determine its geologic history,

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/nasa-plans-two-new-missions-to-venus-its-first-in-decades/article34713518.ece?homepage=true

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