During the 17th European Space Conference in Brussels on January 28-29, 2025, ESA officially awarded Thales Alenia Space Italy the contract to build the spacecraft for Envision, Europe’s new Venus orbiter mission.
Envision will be the first mission to provide a complete view of Venus from its inner core to its upper atmosphere to determine how and why Venus and Earth evolved so differently. The mission will study the planet’s atmosphere, surface and interior, and how these different layers interact with each other.
Read the Thales Alenia Space press release: https://www.thalesaleniaspace.com/en/press-releases/discovering-deepest-secrets-venus-planet-envision-mission
On the same day ESA has launched its official website for the mission at: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Envision
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Space Science Series of ISSI: Venus: Evolution Through Time
In January 2025, the international Venus science community is proud to announce the publication of Volume 87 of the International Space Science Institute’s Space Science Series: Venus: Evolution Through Time. Editor(s) T. Widemann, C. Wilson, D. Breuer, C. Gillmann, S.E. Smrekar, T. Spohn.
The thirteen papers in this collection are the work of 73 authors reviewing our knowledge of Venus’ long term evolution based on complementary approaches, the key open scientific questions and the observations needed to address these questions. Here we provide an overview of each group of topics: general/comparative planetology; initial conditions, accretion and early Venus; surface processes; interior regime throughout history, water and other volatiles, evidence for current activity; selected mission concepts including Envision, and future investigations.
International Space Science Institute Link: https://www.issibern.ch/results/publications/
Springer Nature Link: https://link.springer.com/book/9789402422696
Volume also available from major online vendors (Amazon.com)