Future of Venus Research and Exploration

Abstract

Despite the tremendous progress that has been made since the publication of the Venus II book in 1997, many fundamental questions remain concerning Venus' history, evolution and current geologic and atmospheric processes. The international science community has taken several approaches to prioritizing these questions, either through formal processes like the Planetary Decadal Survey in the United States and the Cosmic Vision in Europe, or informally through science definition teams utilized by Japan, Russia, and India. These questions are left to future investigators to address through a broad range of research approaches that include Earth-based observations, laboratory and modeling studies that are based on existing data, and new space flight missions. Many of the highest priority questions for Venus can be answered with new measurements acquired by orbiting or in situ missions that use current technologies, and several plausible implementation concepts have Venus III Edited

Venus: The Atmosphere, Climate, Surface, Interior and Near-Space Environment of an Earth-Like Planet

“…Addressing the problems outlined above requires a variety of investigative approaches, in particular new and more ambitious space missions (Glaze et al 2018, this issue). The recent era, which emphasised orbiters and entry probes, is likely to be followed by long-lived landers, eventually with mobility, and buoyant stations in and below the cloud layers.…”

Special issue “Akatsuki at Venus: The First Year of Scientific Operation”

“…We hope this special issue will familiarize readers with the outline of the JAXA Akatsuki mission that opened up a new era of Venus exploration. Akatsuki follow-up Venus missions are planned by some space agencies and are discussed by Glaze et al (2018).…”

Analyzing the Performance of a Miniature 3D Wind Sensor for Mars

“…Besides the obvious cost reduction, payload miniaturization allows the use of smaller spacecraft, such as penetrators [ 10 , 11 ], or the possibility of placing the sensors in small rovers [ 12 ], and landers [ 13 , 14 ]. It may also enable the use of the sensors in aerial platforms [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ], or increase the science output in opportunistic missions.…”