By 
August 31st, 2023
Image shows the night side of Venus glowing in thermal infrared, captured by Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft.
Credit: JAXA/ISAS/DARTS/Damia Bouic
Hellish Venus is hot, not only temperature-wise but the planet is a hot topic for exploration. That cloud-veiled world might be a haven for high-altitude life.
Such a prospect is fostering the first-ever private interplanetary mission to Venus to search for signs of life in the clouds by detecting organic chemistry. The mission is planned for launch in January 2025 aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket, an entrepreneurial launch vehicle provider.
Venus cloud encounter – a private sector investigation.
Credit: Rocket Lab
Even prior to that liftoff, researchers are scoping out a set of missions to gather information regarding the Venusian clouds as a possible extraterrestrial home address for life.
Image credit: Morning Star Missions to Venus/MIT
For more information, go to my new Multiverse Media SpaceRef story – “Coming Soon – Missions Hunting for Life in the Cloudy Skies of Venus” at:
https://spaceref.com/science-and-exploration/coming-soon-missions-hunting-life-cloudy-skies-venus/
Posted in Space News
