cuttingedge • goddard’s emerging technologies
Volume 17 • Issue 4 • Summer 2021
Goddard Tech will help NASA Explore Earth’s Mysterious Twin with DAVINCI Although Earth and Venus are similar in size and location, they are very different worlds today. While Earth has oceans of water and abundant life, Venus is dry and fiercely inhospitable. Somewhat closer to the Sun, Venus is much hotter, with surface temperatures high enough to melt lead. The scorched landscape is obscured by clouds of sulfuric acid and smothered by a thick atmosphere of mostly carbon dioxide. At more than 90 times Earth’s surface pressure, air near the surface behaves like a substance between a fluid and a gas. In spite of the extreme present-day conditions, scientists think that in an earlier time, Venus may have been an Earth-like habitable world. They hypothesize something caused a “runaway greenhouse” effect in Venus’ atmosphere, cranking up the temperature and vaporizing its possible oceans. NASA’s DAVINCI mission is set to explore Venus to determine if it was
in this issue:
Summer 2021
habitable and understand how these similar worlds ended up with such different fates. The mission, Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging (DAVINCI), will consist of a carrier-relay spacecraft and an atmospheric descent probe. The carrierrelay spacecraft will track motions of the clouds and composition, as well as mapping regional surface composition by measuring heat emission from Venus’ surface that escapes to space through the massive atmosphere. The probe will sample the atmosphere’s chemistry, temperature, pressure, and winds as often as every 50-150 meters. The probe will also acquire the first high-resolution images of Alpha Regio, an ancient highland twice the size of Texas with rugged mountains, looking for evidence that past crustal water influenced the formation of its surface rocks.
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Goddard Tech will help NASA Explore Earth’s Mysterious Twin with DAVINCI
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Award-Winning Thermal Imager Captures Data for Agriculture and Wildfire Monitoring
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Early Career Innovator: Bethany Theiling Finds Adaptation is Key
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Laser Communications Realize Years of Innovation at Goddard
10 Goddard Scientist Looks to AI, Lensing to Find Masses of Free-Floating Planets 12 Small Mission to Shed New Light on Exoplanet Atmospheres 15 Adapted Computer Program Pushes Satellite Navigation Toward Autonomy 17 Scientist Looks for Specific Energy Emissions to Identify Sources of Cosmic Positrons
About the Cover NASA selected the Goddard-led Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble-gases, Chemistry and Imaging mission to be the first probe to land on Venus since 1985. Where older missions settled on the plains, DAVINCI will bring 21st-century technologies to map and photograph the highlands of our world next door, investigating a mountainous region called Alpha Regio. A carrier-relay satellite will remain in orbit, mapping clouds and terrain and communicating with Earth. Goddard technology will power the atmospheric probe, seals, and parachute customization. (Photo Credit: NASA/Goddard Conceptual Image Lab/Michael Lentz)
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www.nasa.gov/gsfctechnology
