Shukrayaan: Here's All We Know About ISRO's Venus Mission

After scaling the moon and the sun, ISRO has set its eyes on Venus. Post the Chandrayaan-3 and the Aditya-L1 mission, ISRO's next is the Shukrayaan mission.?

India's Venus Orbiter Mission will follow in the footsteps of other international missions to Venus that NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have planned for the 2030s.?

Venus missions recently conducted are ESA's Venus Express in 2016; Japan's Akatsuki Venus Climate Orbiter, which is still orbiting Venus; and NASA's Parker Solar Probe, which has also made multiple flybys.?

Here's all we know about the ISRO Venus mission and what India hopes to gain from it.?

What is ISRO Venus mission?

ISRO's Shukrayaan Mission or Venus Orbiter Mission

The Venus Orbiter Mission, or the Shukrayaan Mission, is a planned Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) mission to study the surface and atmosphere of Venus.?

The name 'Shukrayaan - 1' combines the words 'Shukra', meaning Venus, and 'Yaana', meaning craft, in Sanskrit.?

Its scientific payloads currently include a high-resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and a ground-penetrating radar. Despite the clouds around the planet,?SAR would examine Venus's surface, which lower visibility.?

What is the aim of Shukrayaan: ISRO's Venus mission??

The mission's primary focus is to study the surface and atmosphere of Venus, which is thick - atmospheric pressure on Venus is about 100 times that of Earth - and filled with acids.?

The objective of the mission is thus to conduct a comprehensive study of Venus.

When is ISRO planning to launch its Venus mission??

ISRO Chairman S. Somanath has recently said that the Venus mission has been configured, and the payloads for the project have been developed.?

S. Somanath

However, ISRO has yet to reveal important details of the Venus mission, such as the launch date and other key aspects.?

Why is the planet Venus being targeted by ISRO??

via GIPHY

The ISRO chief highlighted the importance of understanding Venus, stating, "Venus is a very interesting planet. It also has an atmosphere. Its atmosphere is so thick. You cannot penetrate the surface. You don't know if its surface is hard or not."?

Further, it is believed that studying Venus could provide insights into where our own planet, Earth, is headed.?

"Earth could be one day Venus. I don't know. Maybe 10,000 years later, we (Earth) change our characteristics," said the ISRO chief.? ?

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