ISRO to beat NASA in its quest to explore Venus; will send spacecraft to the Earth twin

The Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to set out for yet another massive mission and this time it will be on Venus, the Earth look-alike. And what makes this mission even more exciting is that ISRO is likely to beat NASA, which is planning similar missions to Venus. The two space agencies have been caught up in another battle recently, with ISRO also looking to beat NASA in landing a rover on the far side of the Moon. But unlike the lunar mission, the Venusian exploration will measure India’s capacity to launch a mission to any planet in our solar system.

As reported by India Today, the key objective of the mission will be to study the Venusian atmosphere. The atmosphere of the planet is quite harmful as it is corrosive and toxic in nature, along with clouds of sulphuric acid which covers the entire planet. The planning of this mission has been going for years now, as stated by the ISRO chairman S Somanath, but finally the mission is ready and the funds that were needed for it and exploration was provided seamlessly. This mission has further motivated the people of the US to take up a mission to Venus and try to understand how the planet became an inferno.

ISRO vs NASA: Race to Venus

In the global arena, India has emerged as one of the top contributors for facilitating cheaper interplanetary missions. Hence, Venus is next on the country’s list which also includes exploration plans for asteroids in the future. The aforementioned one-day conference, organised by ISRO became the platform for the discussion of different objectives of the mission for the orbiter and to look into any further observations to be carried out that were not scaled in the past.

The ISRO chairman believes that the mission will be praised only if it turns out to be unique, similar to what happened during Mangalyaan and Chandrayaan missions. “Goal is to review what unique additional knowledge observations can be done and see that we are not repeating what all has already been done. Repeating some of them is not a crime, but if we bring uniqueness, it will have an impact globally. It will be hailed only if it is unique, just like Chandrayaan and the Mars mission," stated S. Somnath.

NASA is planning similar missions to Venus. Spending nearly $1 Bn, the American space agency has initiated two projects, DAVINCI+ and VERITAS, which will see a spacecraft head to Venus between 2028 and 2030. The mission will explore how Venus became an inferno-like world when it shares so many features similar to the Earth.