This image made available by NASA shows the planet Venus made with data from the Magellan spacecraft and Pioneer Venus Orbiter. On Wednesday, June 2, 2021, NASA’s new administrator, Bill Nelson, announced two new robotic missions to the solar system's hottest planet, during his first major address to employees. (NASA/JPL-Caltech via AP)
By Marcia Dunn
NASA is returning to sizzling Venus, our closest yet perhaps most overlooked neighbor, after decades of exploring other worlds.
The space agency's new administrator, Bill Nelson, announced two new robotic missions to the solar system's hottest planet, during his first major address to employees Wednesday.
“These two sister missions both aim to understand how Venus became an inferno-like world capable of melting lead at the surface," Nelson said.
One mission named DaVinci Plus will analyze the thick, cloudy Venusian atmosphere in an attempt to determine whether the inferno planet ever had an ocean and was possibly habitable. A small craft will plunge through the atmosphere to measure the gases.
It will be the first U.S.-led mission to the Venusian atmosphere since 1978.
The other mission, called Veritas, will seek a geologic history by mapping the rocky planet’s surface.
“It is astounding how little we know about Venus," but the new missions will give fresh views of the planet's atmosphere, made up mostly of carbon dioxide, down to the core, NASA scientist Tom Wagner said in a statement. “It will be as if we have rediscovered the planet.”
NASA’s top science official, Thomas Zurbuchen, calls it “a new decade of Venus.” Each mission — launching sometime around 2028 to 2030 — will receive $500 million for development under NASA’s Discovery program.
The missions beat out two other proposed projects, to Jupiter's moon Io and Neptune's icy moon Triton.
The U.S. and the former Soviet Union sent multiple spacecraft to Venus in the early days of space exploration. NASA's Mariner 2 performed the first successful flyby in 1962, and the Soviets' Venera 7 made the first successful landing in 1970.
In 1989, NASA used a space shuttle to send its Magellan spacecraft into orbit around Venus.
The European Space Agency put a spacecraft around Venus in 2006.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
For the first time microplastics have been found deep in the lungs of living humans. The trace materials potentially came from everyday items such as plastic bottles and bags. Dr. Jessica Shepherd, the chief medical officer at Verywell Health, joined Cheddar News to talk about the report's findings and to discuss the possible risks people might face. "The study’s most important part is we need to decrease our pollution, and we need to think about different ways to consume outside of plastic," she said.
An estimated five billion people lack access to affordable and safe surgical care around the world. For World Health Day, Cheddar News spoke with Kristie Magee Porcaro of Operation Smile, a nonprofit organization assisting with cleft lip and palate surgeries, about how they work to better it around the globe.
There has been notable disagreement in the medical community about a fourth COVID-19 vaccine dose. The FDA last week authorized a second booster dose for older and immunocompromised individuals, as some agency officials did not support the idea. The FDA made the decision without meeting with its advisory committee, as it had ahead of its recommendations on the previous COVID-19 vaccine doses.
The CDC followed in the footsteps of the FDA and authorized a fourth dose as well. Reports say the agency also did not discuss the move with its own advisory team of vaccine experts. Now, a growing number of doctors are speaking out against the decisions - leaving people confused about whether they should get another vaccine dose. Dr. Julie Morita, a member of the CDC's advisory committee to the director, and the executive vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Talmon Marco, CEO of H2Pro, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss how to bring environmentally friendly hydrogen to scale, and what this means for hydrogen's many use cases.
Catching you up on what you need to know on April 7, 2022, with updates on Ukraine urging NATO for military aid for their war with Russia, the SEC investigating Amazon, microplastics being found deep inside human lungs for the first time, and more.
Patients who have grown frustrated with lingering COVID-19 symptoms and unanswered questions are now not only the subjects of "long covid" research, but also partners in pushing this research forward. Harlan Krumholz, professor of medicine at Yale University, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
A record number of tornadoes were observed in March, topping the previous record set last year. Cheddar News speaks with NOAA’s Harold Brooks about what the implications are of an early tornado season.
Catching you up on what you need to know on April 6, 2022, with updates on the FDA’s meeting to discuss a second COVID booster shot, more on the war in Ukraine, tornadoes on the Gulf coast, a third suspect arrested in connection to the mass shooting in California, Darwin’s lost notebooks mysteriously returned, and more.
Two of naturalist Charles Darwin’s notebooks that were reported stolen from Cambridge University have been returned, two decades after they disappeared.
