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Shukrayaan I : Venus mission

News: An advisor to the space science programme recently said that the Indian Space Research Organisation is yet to receive approval from the Indian government for the Venus mission and that the mission could as a result be postponed to 2031

Shukrayaan-I

• Another name for it is the Venus Mission.
• An orbiter will be used for the Shukrayaan I mission.
• A high-resolution synthetic aperture radar and a ground-penetrating radar are two of its current scientific payloads.
• From an elliptical orbit, the mission will likely research Venus’s geological and volcanic activities, emissions on the surface, wind speed, cloud cover, and other planetary features.
• The best time to launch from Earth to Venus is once every 19 months.
• Because of their similarity in size and structure, Venus is frequently referred to as “Earth’s twin,” yet Venus has a very hot surface and a hazardous atmosphere.
• One day on Venus lasts 243 days on Earth because of how slowly it rotates on its axis.
• Venus is the hottest planet because of a runaway greenhouse effect caused by its thick atmosphere, which traps heat.

Challenges to the mission

• Venus presents different difficulties from Mars because of its complicated surface activities and heavy atmosphere.
• The instruments need to travel far through the atmosphere in order to gain a deeper knowledge.
• High resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), one of the equipment the space agency intends to utilise on the spacecraft, would analyse Venus’ surface despite the planet’s surrounding clouds, which reduce vision.
• It alludes to a method of creating high-resolution pictures. Because of its accuracy, radar can collect data day and night in any weather because it can see through clouds and darkness.