Russia has begun planning to build ‘Venera-D’, a spacecraft destined to become the first to be sent to Venus by Moscow since Soviet times. Initially planned as a joint operation with US NASA, it will likely be one-sided.
The scientific director of the Institute for Space Research Lev Zeleny spoke to the TASS news agency that the vessel will only be launched in 2029 if everything is on schedule.
“The technical design of the project has begun,” he said after a meeting between the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
Russia’s Venus program is planned to involve at least three separate missions, with Venera-D as the first. The orbit station will study the planet’s surface, atmosphere, internal structure and the surrounding plasma.
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This is followed by two further journeys in 2031 and 2034. The latter will bring samples of the atmosphere and possibly soil back to earth.
Last September, Roscosmos revealed that the mission as a “independent national project without extensive involvement of international cooperation,” despite the initial willingness to join NASA.
The last time Moscow did extensive research on Venus was during the time of the Soviet Union, when the unmanned Venus-7 became the first spacecraft to land on the planet and send the data back to Earth.
Last year, Dmitry Rogozin, head of Roscosmos, made headlines after mentioning Venus a “Russian planet,” and note that the USSR has made the most important progress in exploring the second planet from the sun.
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“Our country was the first and only one on Venus. Our equipment was there, and it did research. Overall, it’s a living hell,” Rogozin said. “Mission to Venus is part of the government’s program for space exploration in Russia for 2021-2030.”
Although Venus is a priority for Moscow, it is relatively low on the list for most space exploration countries. Although it has a similar size to Earth, it has an atmosphere of 97% carbon dioxide and an average temperature of 464 degrees, which is not conducive to life.
Last summer, scientists at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom published an article suggesting that Venus’ clouds may be inhabited by living organisms. The researchers found phosphine gas in the planet’s atmosphere, a substance that is associated with life on earth. As things stand now, the gas remains inexplicable.
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