Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Enigmatic Venus holds tight its secrets under thick clouds.
Image credit: NASA

Albeit a hell hole of a world, the planet Venus is a tantalizing, cloud-enveloped cool place for scientific scrutiny to ferret out its history, evolution and gauge its present state.

Last month, the Venus Exploration Analysis Group (VExAG) came together, a community-based forum to shape and advance a clear strategy to probe the cloudy planet.

It was not a meeting for the faint of heart. Akin to Venus itself, the heated chatter of the perplexed attendees could melt lead.

Rocket Lab is sending the first private mission to Venus.
Credit: Rocket Lab

Looming over discussions were NASA budgetary woes impacting not only selected missions for Venus, but the NASA-wide scene of flat or shrinking funds that now haunts future missions of all classes and destinations.

There are early causalities within the shifting NASA Venus agenda.

Meanwhile, work on the first private mission to that hellish world is pressing forward.

To find out more, go to the Space.com story – “Can a Private Space Mission Pierce Venus’s Clouds?” – at:

https://www.space.com/can-private-space-mission-pierce-venus-clouds