DAVINCI Probe's Eye View || NASA's New Mission || 2029

Описание: An overview of the DAVINCI mission through the eyes of the descent probe.

The upcoming DAVINCI mission, which stands for Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry and Imaging, is set to revolutionize our understanding of Venus. Named after the visionary Renaissance artist and thinker Leonardo da Vinci, this NASA mission is scheduled to send a meter-diameter "Probe" to Venus in 2029. This probe will carry advanced instrumentation that promises to unlock vital insights into the evolutionary history of Venus, its potential past oceans, and its significance in the study of exoplanets near other stars.
DAVINCI's objective is to explore Venus' extensive atmosphere in unprecedented detail, drawing inspiration from the successful exploration of Mars through missions like the Curiosity rover. The mission will target a region known as Alpha Regio, an ancient continental area on Venus more than twice the size of Texas. By traversing the Venusian atmosphere from near its cloud tops down to the surface, DAVINCI aims to contextualize Venus in relation to Earth and Mars. This endeavor will offer valuable insights into rocky exoplanets with atmospheres, a field that will soon be further explored with upcoming astrophysical observatories like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
Prior to its main descent, the DAVINCI mission plans to perform two flybys of Venus, capturing captivating movies of cloud movements and investigating perplexing chemical absorbers found in the upper cloud layers. As the Probe spacecraft delves deeper into Venus' atmosphere, it will utilize its descent camera to provide human-scale images of the enigmatic 'tessera' highlands on Venus. This imagery will furnish critical information about their composition and relief.
DAVINCI is a collaborative effort between NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center located in Greenbelt, MD, and Lockheed Martin based in Denver, CO. The mission's instrumentation is being developed by various entities, including NASA's Goddard, JPL, Malin Space Science Systems, and supported by key hardware contributions from Johns Hopkins APL and the University of Michigan. The knowledge gained from DAVINCI's ambitious exploration will have a lasting impact for decades to come, guiding future missions that will continue to map Venus from orbit and potentially pave the way for astrobiological investigations of this captivating sister world.