On June 10th, 2021, the ESA (European Space Agency) announced the selection of a spacecraft named EnVision as its newest medium-class science mission.
According to NASA, “EnVision will make detailed observations of Venus to understand its history and especially understand the connections between the atmosphere and geologic processes.” NASA is a key partner to this mission and supplied the Synthetic Aperture Radar, also known as VenSAR. VenSar will make high resolution measurements of Venus’s surface features.
Artist rendering of ESA’s EnVision spacecraft.
Credits: European Space Agency/Paris Observatory/VR2Planets
With a higher resolution than NASA’s Magellan mission (which captured images of Venus in the 1990s), VenSAR will improve the understanding of Venus’s surface. “EnVision’s VenSAR will provide a unique perspective with its targeted studies of the Venus surface, enriching the roadmap of Venus exploration,” said Adriana Ocampo, EnVision Program Scientist at NASA HQ.
For more information about NASA’s planetary science, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/solarsystem
For more information about ESA’s Cosmic Vision plan, visit:
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