India’s Venus Mission

After the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched its Mars Orbiter Mission, winning many accolades, reports suggest that it now plans a mission to Venus. Zee News quoted ISRO Chairman Kiran Kumar as saying, “Venus is our neighbour and has many scientific challenges and aspects that need to be studied. Exploring an asteroid is also challenging task.”

This news comes after ISRO had announced on 13 July that it is targetting up to 10 launches a year by 2016. India's last planetary mission, the Mars Orbiter Mission was launched on 5 November, 2013 and went into Mars orbit on 24 September, 2014. The Mars mission team won the prestigious 2015 Space Pioneer Award in the science and engineering category in recognition of achieving the rare feat in its very first attempt.

Venus, one of the four terrestrial planets in the inner Solar System is called Earth’s “sister planet” because of their similar size, mass, proximity to the Sun and bulk composition. However, the two worlds could not be more different. It is shrouded by an opaque layer of highly reflective clouds of sulfuric acid, preventing its surface from being seen from space in visible light.

It may have had oceans in the past, but these would have vaporized as the temperature rose due to a runaway greenhouse effect. Venus is also called Earth's "sister planet" for its similar size, gravity, and bulk composition. It is covered with thick clouds, creating a greenhouse effect that made it very hot. The distance between Earth and Venus is 41,840,000 km at the closest.

Its surface is a rocky, dusty, waterless expanse of mountains, canyons, and plains with a 200-mile river of hardened lava. If approved, the primary role of an Indian scientific mission to Venus would be to study the atmosphere, which is 95 percent carbon dioxide, nitrogen, sulfuric acid, and traces of other elements.

So far, only Russia, the United States, and the European Space Agency (ESA) have successfully sent their missions to Venus. In December 2015, Japan will try to insert its Akatsuki probe into the planet’s orbit. Their first attempt in 2010 had failed.