NASA to Launch Sounding Rocket to Peek at Atmosphere of Venus

NASA is planning on getting a closer look at Venus. Just a week after launching a new orbiter to investigate the upper atmosphere of Mars, the space agency is sending a sounding rocket to probe the atmosphere of another planet.

Scheduled to lift off from White Sands, New Mexico on Nov. 25, the Venus Spectral Rocket, VeSpR for short, will journey above our atmosphere to learn more about Venus. VeSpR itself is a two-stage system, combining a Terrier missile--originally built as a surface-to-air missile and later repurposed to support science missions--and a Black Brant model Mk1 sounding rocket with a telescope inside.

So what exactly will this sounding rocket do? It will look at ultraviolet light that is being emitted from Venus' atmosphere. This will provide scientists with information about the history of the planet's water. Since Earth's own atmosphere absorbs most UV light before it reaches the ground, the sounding rocket is crucial for taking UV measurements.

"Venus today has a thick atmosphere that contains very little water, but we think the planet started out with an ocean's worth of water," said John T. Clarke, the mission's principal investigator, in a news release.

Currently, researchers are trying to determine whether water existed on the surface of Venus or only high up in the atmosphere, where temperatures were cooler. If the surface temperature stayed below the boiling point of water long enough, though, rivers may have once flowed on the planet. In fact, it's likely that Venus may have even had ice.

In order to determine whether or not this was the case, though, scientists will need to find out how much hydrogen and deuterium, a heavier version of hydrogen, remain in the atmosphere. Both of these gases can combine with oxygen to make water. By comparing the amount of deuterium now in the atmosphere to the amount of hydrogen, the researchers can estimate how much water disappeared from Venus and how quickly it happened.

Earlier estimates have actually indicated that Venus could have had enough ancient water to cover the whole globe with 23 feet of liquid. But it turns out that the amounts of hydrogen and deuterium can vary at different heights in the planet's atmosphere. This, in turn, could change the calculations.  That's why researchers are using VeSpR to take further measurements.

The findings could reveal a bit more about the history of this planet. This, in turn, could inform future research about other planets in our galaxy and beyond.