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EnVision: taking the pulse of our twin planet

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Abstract

EnVision is an ambitious but low-risk response to ESA’s call for a medium-size mission opportunity for a launch in 2022. Venus is the planet most similar to Earth in mass, bulk properties and orbital distance, but has evolved to become extremely hostile to life. EnVision’s 5-year mission objectives are to determine the nature of and rate of change caused by geological and atmospheric processes, to distinguish between competing theories about its evolution and to help predict the habitability of extrasolar planets. Three instrument suites will address specific surface, atmosphere and ionosphere science goals. The Surface Science Suite consists of a 2.2 m2 radar antenna with Interferometer, Radiometer and Altimeter operating modes, supported by a complementary IR surface emissivity mapper and an advanced accelerometer for orbit control and gravity mapping. This suite will determine topographic changes caused by volcanic, tectonic and atmospheric processes at rates as low as 1 mm a − 1. The Atmosphere Science Suite consists of a Doppler LIDAR for cloud top altitude, wind speed and mesospheric structure mapping, complemented by IR and UV spectrometers and a spectrophotopolarimeter, all designed to map the dynamic features and compositions of the clouds and middle atmosphere to identify the effects of volcanic and solar processes. The Ionosphere Science Suite uses a double Langmiur probe and vector magnetometer to understand the behaviour and long-term evolution of the ionosphere and induced magnetosphere. The suite also includes an interplanetary particle analyser to determine the delivery rate of water and other components to the atmosphere.

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Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank ESA for their thorough evaluation of this proposed mission and the valuable feedback provided.

Dr Mitchell’s was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK

    Richard C. Ghail, Marina Galand, Chris Cochrane, Philippa Mason & Matthew Genge

  2. University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3PU, UK

    Colin Wilson & Neil Bowles

  3. Astrium, Portsmouth, PO3 5PU, UK

    David Hall

  4. DLR, 12489, Berlin, Deutschland

    Joern Helbert

  5. LATMOS, 75252, Paris, France

    Franck MontMessin

  6. University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, 53706, USA

    Sanjay Limaye

  7. Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK

    Manish Patel

  8. SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Utrecht, Netherlands

    Daphne Stam

  9. Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala University, 75105, Uppsala, Sweden

    Jan-Erik Wahlund

  10. Politecnico di Milano, 20133, Milan, Italy

    Fabio Rocca

  11. Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, TW20 0EX, UK

    David Waltham

  12. University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3AN, UK

    Tamsin A. Mather

  13. University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1RJ, UK

    Juliet Biggs

  14. University of Bordeaux, 33270, Floirac, France

    Philippe Paillou

  15. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 91109, USA

    Karl Mitchell

  16. Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YQ, UK

    Lionel Wilson

  17. NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, 23681-2199, USA

    Upendra N. Singh

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  1. Richard C. Ghail
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  2. Colin Wilson
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Correspondence to Richard C. Ghail.

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Ghail, R.C., Wilson, C., Galand, M. et al. EnVision: taking the pulse of our twin planet. Exp Astron 33, 337–363 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-011-9244-3

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