Venus-bound NASA instrument prepping to brave harsh atmosphere | Space

The one-way trip should help scientists crack the planet’s mysteries.

NASA scientists are preparing to paint the most detailed picture to date of the atmosphere of Venus when the aptly named DAVINCI — or Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble Gases, Chemistry, and Imaging — mission drops a probe to the planet’s surface.

When the 3-foot-wide (0.9 meters) descent sphere of the DAVINCI mission takes its one-way parachute trip to Venus’ surface in the early 2030s, it will be carrying the VASI (Venus Atmospheric Structure Investigation) instrument along with five other instruments. VASI will collect data regarding the temperature, pressure and winds of Venus’ atmosphere as it makes its hellish descent and enters the planet’s crushing lower atmosphere.

“There are actually some big puzzles about the deep atmosphere of Venus,” Ralph Lorenz, the science lead for the VASI instrument and a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Maryland, said in a statement. “We don’t have all the pieces of that puzzle and DAVINCI will give us those pieces by measuring the composition at the same time as the pressure and temperature as we get near the surface."  …