Venus

Evening Star

Earth’s twin

The walk

Now

  1. IThe Light
  2. IITwo Lights
  3. ·Tonight

Cycle

  1. IIIThe World
  2. IVHidden Ground
  3. VThe Clock
  4. V·The Date

Names

  1. VIOldest Watching
  2. ·The Wanderers
  3. VIIShe Descends
  4. VIIIAphrodite
  5. XThe Year
  6. XILetters
  7. XIISoul Planet
  8. XIIISymbolic Sky
  9. XIVAttention
  10. XVAhead
  11. XVIReturn

XV · Ahead

The clock is still running

Venus ahead

The planet is not a closed case.

After Magellan, American planning went quiet for a generation. That is over. Dates are as the agencies published them. They move.

Diagram of Venus as an interior planet relative to Earth. Diagram, not a sky photograph.
Diagram · the inner orbit. Interpretation of geometry, not a sky photograph.

  • Open

    Did Venus ever hold a long-lived ocean?

    High D/H suggests substantial water loss. Tessera may preserve ancient crust. Whether the water was a sea, a mist, or a brief steam atmosphere remains a question for DAVINCI, VERITAS and EnVision.

  • Open

    Is the surface still volcanic?

    Magellan radar from February and October 1991 shows a Maat Mons vent that changed shape and doubled in size, consistent with eruption. Reported 2023 from the archive. Activity is inferred from old data, not watched live like Io.

  • Open

    What is the unknown absorber?

    Something in the upper cloud soaks up about half the incoming ultraviolet sunlight. It has not been identified. DAVINCI’s CUVIS is built to help name it. The mystery sits in the air, not only under it.

  • Alive

    What does Venus teach rocky exoplanets?

    Two similar masses, two climates. The inner edge of habitability is not a slogan. It is a trajectory. Venus is the nearby end-state we can still visit.

  • Dispute

    Phosphine in the clouds?

    Greaves et al. 2020 reported a PH₃ feature. Later observations and reanalyses disputed detection, abundance, and meaning. This office records a dispute, not a biosignature.

  1. planned 29 March 2028

    Venus Orbiter Mission

    ISRO

    Indian government approved September 2024. ISRO announced 29 March 2028 as the planned launch, 112 days to orbit. Planned, not sealed.

  2. early 2030s

    DAVINCI

    NASA

    Descent probe through the clouds, aimed at Alpha Regio tessera. CUVIS is built to help name the unknown absorber. Dates have moved; treat as early 2030s.

  3. TBD, NET 2031

    VERITAS

    NASA / JPL

    Global topography and composition. JPL lists launch TBD. NASA materials say no earlier than 2031. A question the next radar may answer.

  4. planned November 2031

    Envision

    ESA

    Subsurface radar. Venus as rock, air, and interior together. ESA factsheet: planned November 2031.

Inspect · Flown · 1962 to 2021

  1. 1962

    Mariner 2

    NASA

    First successful planetary flyby. 14 December. Radiometers scanned for 42 minutes. Night as hot as day began as those minutes. A furnace, not a jungle.

  2. 1970

    Venera 7

    USSR

    First landing on another planet. 23 minutes from the surface.

  3. 1974

    Mariner 10

    NASA

    Gravity assist on the way to Mercury. 5 February occultation. X-band died at about 50 km. S-band reached about 42 km before the air extinguished it.

  4. 1975

    Venera 9

    USSR

    First photographs from the surface of another world.

  5. 1982

    Venera 13

    USSR

    Color panoramas. Survived 127 minutes in ~90 atmospheres.

  6. 1990 to 1994

    Magellan

    NASA

    Synthetic-aperture radar of ~98% of the surface, still the atlas. First global map of ground and gravity.

  7. 2006 to 2014

    Venus Express

    ESA

    Eight years in the air. Polar vortices that change shape. Nightside oxygen airglow. Cloud-top winds up to about 400 km/h.

  8. 2015 to 2024

    Akatsuki

    JAXA

    Climate orbiter. Mapped the ~four-day superrotation of the clouds.

  9. 2020 to 2021

    Parker Solar Probe

    NASA

    Gravity-assist flybys. WISPR recorded nightside surface glow and an oxygen halo. The ground writing itself in the dark.

Measured · three looks

Forty-two, as the instruments left it

Cipher counts letters. The Book keeps why 42 hovers. This house keeps three spacecraft facts. A duration. A radio death. A radar frame.

  • Artist’s concept of Mariner 2. NASA / JPL. PIA04594. The craft carried no cameras.

    Artist’s concept. NASA / JPL. PIA04594. Mariner 2 carried no cameras. Not a photograph of Venus.

    42 min

    Mariner 2

    14 December 1962

    First successful planetary encounter. Microwave and infrared radiometers scanned the night side, the terminator, and the day side for forty-two minutes. Night as hot as day began as those minutes.

  • Venus wrapped in cloud, recorded by Mariner 10 after closest approach. NASA / JPL-Caltech. PIA23791. Processed science, not a surface photograph.

    Mariner 10 · Venus. NASA / JPL-Caltech. PIA23791. Processed science of the lid. Not a photograph of the ground.

    ~42 km

    Mariner 10

    5 February 1974

    On the way to Mercury the radio went through the air. X-band died at about 50 km. S-band reached about 42 km before atmospheric absorption extinguished it. The lid is not only optical.

  • Magellan radar of Sacajawea Patera on Lakshmi Planum. NASA / JPL. PIA00485. Reconstruction, not a photograph.

    Sacajawea Patera. Magellan / NASA / JPL. PIA00485. Radar reconstruction. The plate is about 420 km wide at the base.

    ~420 km

    Sacajawea Patera

    Magellan · PIA00485

    The published radar plate is about 420 km wide at the base. The caldera itself is a depression about 120 by 215 km on Lakshmi Planum. The 420 is the frame, not the mountain.

Cipher keeps the letter-count. This house keeps what the spacecraft did.

Inspect · Place beside