Having launched three planetary-science spacecraft, India’s scientists and engineers at the state-owned Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) have set their sights on a Venus orbiter. They have sent plans for it to the Indian national government hoping for approval to go ahead with the mission.
“The major objective is to map the Venusian surface and subsurface,” Nigar Shaji, an ISRO scientist, told a group of Venus experts during a meeting held in Colorado. Instruments on-board the spacecraft will also study the planet’s atmosphere and ionosphere, as well as how Venus interacts with the surrounding environment.
ISRO has identified 16 instruments that it would like to fly. These include tools focused on monitoring clouds, identifying lightning strikes, studying the eerie air-glow of the planet and measuring the highly charged plasma particles passing by Venus on their way out from the sun.
If the mission is approved, the spacecraft will launch in June 2023 on one of ISRO’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicles, the same type of vehicle that launched India’s Chandrayaan-2 mission to the moon this summer.
