Russia to work on prototype of Venus Research Station by early 2024: Report

The second stage of the landmark Russian space mission to send an orbital research station to Venus will begin in late 2023 or early 2024, the head of Russia's Space Research Institute was quoted as saying by state-affiliated agency Sputnik on Monday. Moscow is planning to send the Venera-D mission to space in 2029, Anatoly Petrukovich informed at a press conference, adding that Russia will take inspiration from the 1960s Soviet Venus exploration programs. Russian Space Research Institute has identified the goals to send its space mission and is exploring the type of equipment that will be needed to implement a successful launch, Petrukovich noted. 

"We have submitted pre-project plans. We are preparing to move on to the next stage at the end of this year or early next year and start working on a preliminary design," Anatoly Petrukovich was quoted as saying.

Russia's Venus mission will focus, in-depth, on the planetary life of the Earth's closest neighbour, Venus which shares almost the same size and history as the Green planet.  Venera-D mission's orbital station will be equipped with chemical sensors that will detect the volcanic and tectonic activity on Venus. The goal of the mission will be to study the greenhouse gases that end up heating the Venusian atmosphere to a hellish 467 degrees Celsius (872 F). The mission will also investigate the component that forms the upper layers of the planet that enables it to rotate at an exorbitant speed of an estimated 60 times faster. 

A 3D model of Venus. Credit: NASA Visualization Technology Applications and Development (VTAD)

India to send collaborators for 2023 Venus mission

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in Bengaluru is planning to send an orbiter to Venus in 2023. The country has been sending out formal invitations to top-notch scientists globally to suggest the instruments that can be carried out for the mission. ISRO will land a balloon into Venus' atmosphere, a region that the scientific community believes has been long neglected compared to the moon and Mars.

Reportedly, India's unnamed spacecraft will weigh about 2500 kilograms and will carry an approximately 100-kilogram payload to the  4.5 billion years old planet of the Solar System. Venus is a challenging planet to observe and study due to the thick clouds that make any research from an orbiter tedious. Other glaring challenges are the planet's heat due to proximity to the sun, high pressure, and sulfuric acid droplets. Venus's orbit is closer to the Sun than the Earth's. The planet is nearly as big around as Earth – 7,521 miles (12,104 kilometres) across, versus 7,926 miles (12,756 kilometres). But ISRO has already selected nearly 12 instruments that include the cameras and chemical analyzers under the recommendation of Indian scientists.