posted 06-02-2021 03:01 PM               

NASA is awarding approximately $500 million for the mission's development. VERITAS is expected to launch in 2026.

From a NASA release:

VERITAS will map Venus' surface to determine the planet's geologic history and understand why it developed so differently than Earth. Orbiting Venus with a synthetic aperture radar, VERITAS will chart surface elevations over nearly the entire planet to create 3D reconstructions of topography and confirm whether processes such as plate tectonics and volcanism are still active on Venus.

VERITAS also will map infrared emissions from Venus' surface to map its rock type, which is largely unknown, and determine whether active volcanoes are releasing water vapor into the atmosphere.

Suzanne Smrekar of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, is the principal investigator. JPL provides project management. The German Aerospace Center will provide the infrared mapper with the Italian Space Agency and France's Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales contributing to the radar and other parts of the mission.

VERITAS will [also] host the Deep Space Atomic Clock-2, built by JPL and funded by NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate. The ultra-precise clock signal generated with this technology will ultimately help enable autonomous spacecraft maneuvers and enhance radio science observations.

posted 06-02-2021 03:16 PM               

Lockheed Martin to Help NASA Uncover Mysteries of Venus with VERITAS Spacecraft

Lockheed Martin has a major role in NASA's long-anticipated return to Venus

To learn more about how terrestrial planets evolve over time, NASA selected the VERITAS mission for its Discovery Program, bound for Venus. Lockheed Martin will design, build and operate the spacecraft. The mission will launch in 2026 and will study Venus' dense atmosphere, topography and geologic processes in great depth.

The mission aims to discover how Venus – which may have been the first potentially habitable planet in our solar system – became inhospitable to life. It represents NASA's return to Earth's sister planet after more than three decades.

VERITAS – which stands for Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography & Spectroscopy – will have its science and operations managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

Why Does Venus Matter?

Though scientists believe it was once similar to our home planet, Venus evolved to be much different – and far less habitable – than Earth.

As Earth's own climate and geology evolve, interest in returning to Venus has surged because the planet currently suffers from a runaway greenhouse gas effect.

Over millennia, water that may have once existed on Venus' surface evaporated and carbon dioxide built up in the atmosphere – leading to a present-day surface temperature that's hot enough to melt lead.

Previous missions to Venus have even provided tantalizing clues that the planet may have once harbored a liquid ocean.

VERITAS will build on those findings, helping scientists better understand the existence of past life on Venus and how its atmosphere and geology may have influenced its ultimate outcome.

Science from this mission could provide clues about Earth's own future and will also help inform future missions to the planet.

Studying Venus' Geology with VERITAS

As an orbiter that draws on heritage from the Lockheed Martin-built MAVEN spacecraft at Mars, VERITAS will give scientists the most detailed maps ever produced of Venus' obscured landscape.

When VERITAS arrives at Venus, the orbiter will use a special technique called aerobraking to carefully insert itself into an optimal science position in the planet's orbit.

As the spacecraft circles Venus in four cycles near the planet's poles, two extremely sensitive imagers will capture things like volcanic activity, tectonics and outgassing of any life-related compounds like water or carbon.

Legacy of Planetary Exploration

VERITAS is the eighth NASA Discovery Program mission Lockheed Martin has been part of.

NASA's Discovery Program-class missions are capped at a specific, relatively low cost. They are managed for NASA's Planetary Science Division by the Planetary Missions Program Office at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The missions are also designed and led by a principal investigator, who assembles a team of scientists and engineers to address key science questions about the solar system.

Over 50 years, Lockheed Martin has helped NASA explore every planet of our solar system, and continues to develop new technologies for future space missions.

The company also supported NASA on Magellan, the agency's prior mission to Venus 30 years ago. Lockheed Martin built that spacecraft, which produced the first ever maps of Venus' surface from orbit.

Now, the team builds on that legacy of discovery with VERITAS.

posted 11-04-2022 03:28 PM               

To support the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) staffing needs, NASA anticipates delaying the launch of the Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy (VERITAS) mission for at least three years. This choice would allow experienced staff at JPL to complete development of strategic flagship missions further along in their development. A delay of VERITAS, a mission in early formulation, would also free up additional resources to enable the continuation of Psyche and positively affect other planetary funding needs.

VERITAS is a JPL-led mission designed to search for water and volcanic activity on Venus. It was selected in 2021 as one of two Venus proposals for the agency’s Discovery Program, a line of low-cost, competitive missions led by a single principal investigator. The mission, with planned contributions from the Italian Space Agency, German Aerospace Center, and French Space Agency, was originally expected to launch in December 2027. The mission is now scheduled to launch no earlier than 2031.

For a VERITAS delay, JPL will stand down their management and engineering teams for the mission and release the staff to other projects, while funding will be continued for science team support.