Europe will go it alone on Venus mission after NASA yanks radar instrument
Europe is looking inward, and perhaps to China, as the White House tries to cancel some NASA partnerships.
Europe is looking inward, and perhaps to China, as the White House tries to cancel some NASA partnerships.
The short version
- The European orbiter, named Envision, will map the Venusian surface at 10 times higher resolution than the last radar mission sent to Venus by NASA in the 1990s.
- The planet is enshrouded in a blanket of thick clouds of sulfuric acid, rendering its mysterious surface unseen by optical cameras in orbit.
- Radar is the most effective way to penetrate the clouds of Venus to reveal the terrain below, and scientists will use Envision to look for signs of active volcanism.
What happened
But NASA’s budget for science missions is under the gun from the Trump administration, which proposed slashing the agency’s science funding nearly in half in fiscal years 2026 and 2027. Congress rejected most of the cuts in 2026, when lawmakers passed a budget with $2.54 billion for NASA’s planetary science division, far above the White House’s request, but about $220 million shy of last year’s funding.
Why it matters
That saved several key science missions from the chopping block, including one of NASA’s own Venus missions, called DAVINCI, designed to send an entry probe into the planet’s crushing atmosphere.
Summary by Nerd News Network. Read the full article at Ars Technica via the links above and below.