By 
February 8th, 2025
A new strategy for the exploration of Venus.
(Image credit: VEXAG Strategic Plan Study Analysis Workgroup)
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.
At the forefront of tackling what that puzzling place can teach us is the Venus Exploration Analysis Group (VExAG), a community-based forum to help NASA shape and advance a clear strategy to probe that planet.
Extraordinary destination
Late last year, a VExAG gathering included a dedicated and strategic look at opening-up Venus in the next decade and beyond by way of a host of advanced technologies, from balloons to long-lived landers.
Enigmatic Venus holds tight its secrets under thick clouds. Image shows the night side of Venus glowing in thermal infrared, captured by Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft.
Credit: JAXA/ISAS/DARTS/Damia Bouic
A key part of this strategy is a call to scientists in the US and internationally to demonstrate just how extraordinary a destination Venus is and why we should set our scientific sights on further purging that planet of its secrets.
For more information, go to my new Space.com story – “Exploring Venus may require exotic tech like balloons and ‘aerobots’” – at:
Posted in Space News
