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Envision
Understanding why Venus is
so different from Earth
Launch

2031

status

In development

destination

Venus

type

Planetary explorer

Envision will be the first mission to provide a complete view of Venus from its inner core to its upper atmosphere, investigating the planet’s atmosphere, surface and interior, and how these different layers interact with each other. With these insights, Envision aims at bringing us closer to understanding how and why Venus and Earth evolved so differently.
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a unique mission
What makes **Envision** unique?

Envision will be the first mission to simultaneously observe planet Venus from its inner core, subsurface, surface and atmosphere, providing information about the planet's history, activity and climate. Envision will also probe the Venus upper crust for the first time, revealing information about the planet’s surface history.

Envision will use the upper atmosphere of the planet to slow down its speed and achieve its low orbit of between 220 and 510 km altitude. Although this takes some time, it is a very effective way to save fuel allowing a long science operations phase at Venus. Thanks to this, Envision will be the first mission to measure Venus from a low polar orbit for at least four Earth years (six Venus years), providing high quality observations from its core up to 100 km above its surface.

Envision will use the same aerobraking technique as its predecessor Venus Express, visualised in this animation. Credit: ESA–C.Carreau.

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science questions
What questions are we addressing?

We want to uncover the secrets of Venus by addressing key questions related to its past and present state, enabling a better understanding of rocky planets and conditions for habitability in our Solar System and beyond:

Investigate Venus’s history:
How have the surface and interior of Venus evolved??

Analyse Venus’s activity:
How geologically and tectonically active is Venus today, and how active has it been over the past billion years?

Study Venus’s climate:
How are Venus’ atmosphere and climate shaped by geological processes? How does Venus lose its heat, and when and why did a potential runaway greenhouse effect begin at the planet?

Explore Venus’s habitability:
Did Venus have oceans – and could evidence of past water remain in the oldest rocks found on Venus’ surface?

method & instruments
How are we conducting the science?

Envision will use radar mapping and sounding, spectroscopy, radio occultation and gravity measurements to study Venus’s interior, surface, and atmosphere. It will penetrate the thick clouds with its radars and near-infrared spectrometers to map the surface. It will analyse the atmospheric composition below and above the clouds with infrared and ultraviolet spectroscopy and radio occultation. Finally it will probe the planet’s internal structure using gravity data derived from satellite tracking. By combining these methods, Envision investigates Venus’s history, activity and climate and why Venus evolved so differently from Earth.

Animation of the deployment of Envision's instruments VenSAR and SRS, as well as some basic spacecraft operations. Credit: ESA/Paris Observatory/VR2Planets.

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'The spacecraft is equipped with five science instruments and one experiment:
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Synthetic Aperture Radar (VenSAR)
Will image the Venus’s surface regionally at 30 m and 10 m resolution, provide regional stereo topography, detect surface change by repeat imaging, characterise the surface through polarimetry and radiometry, provide quasi-global topography from altimetry.
Instrument Lead Scientist: Scott Hensley, JPL, USA
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Radio Science Experiment (RSE)
Will use the radio links between the spacecraft and Earth to determine Venus's gravity field and k2 Love number to characterise the planet’s interior, monitor variations of H₂SO₄ liquid (novel) and vapour at the base and below the clouds and provide temperature, pressure and density profiles up to 100 km altitude.
Instrument Lead Scientist: Caroline Dumoulin, Nantes University, France
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Subsurface Radar Sounder (SRS)
Will sound the upper 1 km of the Venus surface for the first time, detecting surface and subsurface material boundaries and properties.
Instrument Lead Scientist: Lorenzo Bruzzone, University of Trento, Italy
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Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VenSpec-M)
Will image the Venus’s surface in 14 near-infrared transparency windows and monitor lower atmosphere and cloud variability, to study Venus’s surface, thermal emission variability and mineralogy.
Instrument Lead Scientist: Giulia Alemanno, DLR, Germany
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High Spectral Resolution Infrared Spectrometer (VenSpec-H)
Will observe Venus's atmosphere above and below the clouds at high spectral resolution in four near-infrared spectral bands, characterising volcanic plumes and other sources of trace gas exchange.
Instrument Lead Scientist: Séverine Robert, BIRA-IASB, Belgium
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Ultraviolet Spectral Imager (VenSpec-U)
Will map Venus's cloud top and atmosphere up to 100 km at high spectral resolution in the UV. This will enable to search for volcanic activity and understand the sulphur cycle, as well as distinguish atmospheric motion and chemical reactions.
Instrument Lead Scientist: Emmanuel Marcq, LATMOS/IPSL, UVSQ Université Paris-Saclay, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Guyancourt, France

Credit: ESA/Paris Observatory/VR2Planets. Instruments list: Synthetic Aperture Radar (VenSAR), Subsurface Radar Sounder (SRS), High Spectral Resolution Infrared Spectrometer (VenSpec-H), Nadir Pointing Ultraviolet Spectral Imaging (VenSpec-U), Nadir Pointing Pushbroom Multispectral Imaging (VenSpec-M), Radio Science experiment.

scientific context

Envision builds on the success of Venus Express, Europe's first mission to Venus that orbited the planet from 2006 to 2016. Although Venus Express enabled many discoveries, especially concerning the planet’s atmosphere, many mysteries still remain, in particular around the planet’s geological history and activity. Envision is set to pick up the story. Envision also follows a suite of NASA and Soviet-era missions that started visiting Venus in the 1960s, as well as JAXA's more recent Akatsuki mission. Placing Envision’s data in context with these missions will enable us to better understand processes in action at Venus over long timescales.

Artist impression of Envision at Venus. Credit: ESA/Paris Observatory/VR2Planets & NASA/JPL-Caltech.

building the mission

Envision is an ESA-led mission in partnership with NASA. ASI, DLR, BelSPO and CNES lead the procurements of the SRS, VenSpec-M, VenSpec-H and VenSpec-U instruments, and the Radio Science Experiment (RSE), respectively. NASA provides the Synthetic Aperture Radar (VenSAR), support for the aerobraking phase, and Deep Space Network (DSN) support for critical mission phases. European scientific institutions provide additional instruments and data analysis expertise.​ ESA selected Thales to be prime contractor and lead the spacecraft development.

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