Russia, US Mulling Joint Mission to Venus

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Russia, US Mulling Joint Mission to Venus

 

Russia's space program and NASA are working together on a mission to Venus that would investigate some of the scorching-hot planet's biggest mysteries, including, perhaps, whether it harbors life.

 

An international team of scientists tasked with fleshing out the main goals of the mission, which is known as Venera-D, is wrapping up its work and will deliver its final report to NASA and the Russian Academy of Sciences' Space Research Institute by the end of the month, said David Senske, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

 

[Unobscured Vision]

Lots of firsts with the Venera program. I'd love to see it revived and retooled with modern hardware and engineering. I bet a lander could last a heck of a lot longer nowadays.  

 

Whether it harbors life? Uhh ... no. Not plausible in any scenario under any circumstance. Not even in the upper atmosphere where the temperatures are low. Sulfuric acid is quite literally one of the most hostile substances to biological matter that there is. So no, unlikely.

[DocM]

14 hours ago, Unobscured Vision said:

>

Whether it harbors life? Uhh ... no. Not plausible in any scenario under any circumstance. Not even in the upper atmosphere where the temperatures are low. Sulfuric acid is quite literally one of the most hostile substances to biological matter that there is.

Critters of the Domain Archaea can live in extreme environments;  rift vents at temps over 100°C,  extremely alkaline or acid environments, anoxic muds and even in petroleum deposits. Tough little devil's shouldn't have trouble with Venusian clouds. Also look up acidophilic nanoorganisms.

[Unobscured Vision]

Well, Biochemistry isn't my field of study, so  

[Rippleman]

I am 100% for discovery... however, there are some discoveries that are more valuable then others. I would assume (and do not make the claim to know) that the effort for this Venus effort seems to be of little use at the moment. For the cost, perhaps the billions could be sunk into something with an exponentially better ROI.

[DocM]

It's primarily a Russian mission so it's mostly their dime, with US, ESA etc. payloads.