life in space? Rocket Lab reveals new details on Venus mission – t3n – digital pioneers

Glowing lava, clouds of sulfuric acid, twitching lightning – the Rocket Lab probe will soon fly through this atmosphere. (Iconic image: Shutterstock/Jurik Peter)

In October 2023, the Californian company’s first probe is scheduled to fly through the planet’s clouds. But the trip is not just for research.

Venus is jokingly often called “evil twincalled the earth. Because despite comparable size, age and mass, very uncomfortable conditions prevail on our nearest neighboring planet relationships – at least by human standards. It is about 450 degrees Celsius on the surface, the atmosphere contains 96.5% CO2 and if one had to describe the weather there, “cloudy” would still be whitewashing. The haze consists mainly of gaseous sulfuric acid.

Why the conditions on Venus are so different from those on Earth is an exciting question that needs to be scientifically investigated. After all, a study by NASA suggests that 2 to 3 billion years ago oceans on the surface of the planet – an indication that conditions for the origin of life may have existed there at one time.

In addition, researchers believe in 2020 in a controversial study traces of monophosphine to have discovered in the clouds what is traded in astronomy as a possible sign of inhabited planets.

So there are enough reasons to pay Venus a visit. No wonder there are currently three missions that have the planet as their destination. In addition to Rocket Lab’s cloud flight, NASA is working on landing a probe on the hot surface by 2029 for the first time since 1994. The ESA also wants to conquer Venus. Rocket Lab plans to launch the launch vehicle for the probe in May 2023.

But Rocket Lab should, according to the Gadget Blog gizmodo not just about scientific goals. Above all, competition for the best and most efficient technology in space is raging between various privately financed space companies such as Space X.

Rocket Lab has in the journal aerospace now published the technical details of the undertaking. The company would like to use its electron rocket for the Venus mission, the only reusable model of its kind so far. This saves costs and the rocket can also be easily sent back, which could be used, for example, as a supply transporter for the colonization of Mars.

Government agencies like NASA are outsourcing more and more tasks to private companies, so there’s a lot of competition to be the company tasked with expensive all-space missions.

Rocket Lab’s Venus mission is further evidence that space is already relentlessly pushing ahead with what is gradually making our home planet uninhabitable: the commercialization of space and resources.