‘SHUKRAYAAN’ MISSION - SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
News: ISRO
pushing Venus mission ‘Shukrayaan’ to 2031?
What's in the news?
● ISRO
is yet to receive approval from the Indian Government for the Venus mission and that the mission
could as a result be postponed to 2031.
‘Shukrayaan’ Mission:
● ISRO’s
Venus mission, called Shukrayaan I, was expected to be launched in December
2024.
● Shukrayaan
I will be an orbiter mission. Its
scientific payloads currently include a high-resolution synthetic aperture
radar and a ground-penetrating radar.
Aim:
The
mission is expected to study
● Venus’s
geological and volcanic activity
● Emissions
on the ground
● Wind
speed
● Cloud
cover and
● Other
planetary characteristics from an elliptical orbit.
Other Future Venus Missions:
● VERITAS (DAVINCI+)
- NASA - 2028-2031.
● EnVision
- European Sapace Agency - 2023.
● Venera-D
- Russia - 2029.
Go back to basics:
Venus:
● Venus
is the second closest planet to the Sun, orbiting at a distance of about 67
million miles. It falls under the habitable
zone of the Sun.
● Venus rotates very slowly
on its axis – one day on Venus lasts 243 Earth days.
● The
planet orbits the Sun faster than Earth, however, so one year on Venus takes
only about 225 Earth days, making a Venusian
day longer than its year.
● Venus
thick atmosphere traps heat creating a greenhouse
effect. Its surface temperature is hot enough to melt lead.
● Venus rotates backward on
its axis. This means the Sun rises in the west and
sets in the east, opposite of what we see on Earth.
● The
surface of Venus is dominated by
volcanic features and has more volcanoes than any other planet in the solar
system.