JPL
Careers
Education
Science & Technology
JPL Logo
JPL Logo
VERITAS over Venus scene

Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, And Spectroscopy

VERITAS

VERITAS, short for Venus Emissivity, Radio science, InSAR, Topography, And Spectroscopy, is a Venus orbiter designed to reveal how the paths of Venus and Earth diverged, and how Venus lost its potential as a habitable world.

Mission Statistics

Launch Date

TBD

Type

Orbiter

Target

Venus

Status

Future

About the Mission

VERITAS studies the surface and interior of Venus with a powerful new generation of scientific tools – the first NASA mission to return there since the 1990s. The mission was selected for flight in 2021 as part of NASA's Discovery program. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is responsible for mission management, operations, and navigation.

How did Venus become a sulfurous inferno, while our home planet, Earth, evolved to become the only known abode for life? Of all known planets, moons, and newly discovered exoplanets, Venus is the most Earth-like in terms of size, overall composition, and energy from its star.

Although not currently habitable, Venus lies within the Sun’s "Goldilocks zone," and may have been habitable before Earth was. What caused Venus to evolve into its present hostile state – devoid of the ocean, magnetic field, and plate tectonics that have enabled Earth to become so hospitable for life in the long-term?

VERITAS addresses these compelling questions by determining how Earth’s twin diverged, enabling breakthroughs in our understanding of terrestrial planet evolution and habitability in our own solar system and beyond. It will be followed by NASA's DAVINCI mission and ESA's EnVision mission, leading the way into a period of intense focus on Earth's next-door neighbor planet.

VERITAS will return richly detailed radar maps of Venus' surface, vastly improving the resolution of maps made by the Magellan mission in the 1990s. From these data, scientists will make the first global, high-resolution maps of radar imagery and topography and the first maps of regions where geologic processes are actively deforming the surface in the present day.

VERITAS will also produce the first maps of surface rock composition and constrain surface weathering by peering through the planet's dense atmosphere using spectral windows in the infrared portion of the EM spectrum. VERITAS will search for the thermal signatures of active volcanism and the chemical signatures of recent volcanism.

Science Goals

  • What processes shape rocky planet evolution?
  • What geological processes are currently active on Venus?
  • Is there evidence of past or present water on Venus?

Venus Science Objectives

The following questions convey the main science objectives the VERITAS team will pursue with the mission:

  • What are the composition and origin of the major geologic terrains on Venus?
  • Is volcanism there steady or catastrophic in nature?
  • What are the major tectonic processes that shape Venus? Is subduction currently active?
  • What are the size and state of the core? How viscous is the mantle?
  • Does Venus’ surface have active deformation and volcanism? Are there signatures of recent volcanism?
  • Are Venus’ plateaus like Earth’s continents?
  • Is there water deep in the interior of Venus, and does it reach the atmosphere via volcanism?

International contributions

  • The Italian Space Agency (ASI) provides the spacecraft's integrated deep space transponders, high-gain antenna, and star trackers.
  • The German Aerospace Center (DLR) provides the VEM instrument, along with algorithms to support VISAR ground- and onboard-data processing.
  • The French Space Agency (CNES) provides two flight-model Ka-band traveling-wave tube amplifiers (TWTAs) and a repair kit for the spacecraft telecommunications subsystem.

Instruments

  • Venus Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (VISAR)
  • Venus Emissivity Mapper (VEM)
  • Gravity Science

This artist’s conception illustrates a region of Venus that may have active volcanism and subduction, where the surface is sinking into the mantle. Foreground rocks show low-iron rocks that are possibly analogous to Earth’s granitic continents. VERITAS will test these interpretations.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Peter Rubin

More about Solar System

News .

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Completes Mars Sample Depot

News .

NASA’s Juno Team Assessing Camera After 48th Flyby of Jupiter

News .

NASA’s Psyche Mission Continues Preparation for Launch in 2023

Image .

NASA's Psyche: Picking up Launch Prep for 2023

Event Feb. 16, 2023 .

Perseverance: Two Years on Mars

News .

NASA’s Lunar Flashlight Team Assessing Spacecraft’s Propulsion System

Image .

Lunar Flashlight's Trajectory Correction Maneuver (Illustration)

Image .

NASA's Lunar Flashlight Spotted From Earth on Its Way to the Moon

News .

Juno Spacecraft Recovering Memory After 47th Flyby of Jupiter

News .

NASA Explores a Winter Wonderland on Mars

Venus on NASA Solar System Exploration
VERITAS on NASA Solar System Exploration
Discovery Program Mission Selection Announcement
NASA Discovery Program

Explore Other Missions

GRAIL

Magellan

Europa Lander

Galileo

Dawn

Europa Clipper

Cassini-Huygens

Genesis

Infrared Astronomical Satellite

Juno

About JPL
Who We Are
Executive Council
Directors
Careers
Internships
The JPL Story
JPL Achievements
Documentary Series
Annual Reports
Missions
Current
Past
Future
All
News
All
Earth
Solar System
Stars and Galaxies
Subscribe to JPL News
Galleries
Images
Videos
Audio
Podcasts
Apps
Visions of the Future
Slice of History
Robotics at JPL
Events
Lecture Series
Team Competitions
Speakers Bureau
Calendar
Visit
Public Tours
Virtual Tour
Directions and Maps
Topics
JPL Life
Solar System
Mars
Earth
Climate Change
Exoplanets
Stars and Galaxies
Robotics
More
Asteroid Watch
NASA's Eyes Visualizations
Universe - Internal Newsletter
Social Media
Get the Latest from JPL
Follow Us

JPL is a federally funded research and development center managed for NASA by Caltech.

More from JPL
Careers Education Science & Technology Acquisitions JPL Store
Careers
Education
Science & Technology
Acquisitions
JPL Store
Related NASA Sites
Basics of Spaceflight
Climate Kids
Earth / Global Climate Change
Exoplanet Exploration
Mars Exploration
Solar System Exploration
Space Place
NASA's Eyes Visualization Project
Voyager Interstellar Mission
NASA
Caltech
Privacy
Image Policy
FAQ
Feedback
Site Managers: Veronica McGregor, Randal Jackson
Site Editors: Tony Greicius, Naomi Hartono
CL#: 21-0018