1 00:00:10,410 --> 00:00:10,844 Yeah. 2 00:00:10,844 --> 00:00:13,246 I like to think of Venus as sort of our evil twin. 3 00:00:13,246 --> 00:00:13,546 Right. 4 00:00:13,546 --> 00:00:16,983 So Venus is similar in size to our planet. 5 00:00:17,784 --> 00:00:19,819 They're just about the same size. 6 00:00:19,819 --> 00:00:22,088 They're right next to each other in the solar system. 7 00:00:22,088 --> 00:00:25,058 Venus is just one step in from where we are. 8 00:00:25,058 --> 00:00:28,028 But when it comes to the environment, on the surface, 9 00:00:28,028 --> 00:00:29,796 Venus is very, very different. 10 00:00:29,796 --> 00:00:32,932 So Venus has a thick carbon dioxide atmosphere 11 00:00:33,466 --> 00:00:35,402 at the surface of the planet of Venus. 12 00:00:35,402 --> 00:00:37,504 It's 900 degrees Fahrenheit. 13 00:00:37,504 --> 00:00:40,340 Think the inside of a wood fired pizza oven. 14 00:00:40,340 --> 00:00:43,676 It is 90 times the Earth's pressure at our surface. 15 00:00:43,710 --> 00:00:46,713 So think like the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean. 16 00:00:47,147 --> 00:00:48,148 And those clouds. 17 00:00:48,148 --> 00:00:50,283 Those clouds are full of sulfuric acid. 18 00:00:50,283 --> 00:00:53,253 So it's acidic and it's hot and it's high pressure. 19 00:00:53,253 --> 00:00:55,288 And it's very much like our evil twin. 20 00:01:03,797 --> 00:01:05,565 So in 2021, 21 00:01:05,565 --> 00:01:09,069 NASA's selected two Venus missions, DAVINCI and Veritas. 22 00:01:09,602 --> 00:01:11,805 And these two missions are going to 23 00:01:11,805 --> 00:01:14,574 they're going to tell us some different things about Venus. 24 00:01:14,574 --> 00:01:18,211 So DAVINCI is going to be the first time that we've sent a probe 25 00:01:18,211 --> 00:01:21,347 through the atmosphere this century as that probe goes 26 00:01:21,347 --> 00:01:22,682 in, it's going to make little measurements, 27 00:01:22,682 --> 00:01:24,017 little sips of the atmosphere, 28 00:01:24,017 --> 00:01:27,020 make pressure and temperature measurements as it goes down. 29 00:01:27,187 --> 00:01:30,457 And it's going to tell us a lot about the origin and evolution of that atmosphere, 30 00:01:30,657 --> 00:01:34,360 as well as maybe whether or not Venus had oceans in the past. 31 00:01:34,794 --> 00:01:38,098 Veritas is an orbital mission, and so it's going to orbit around Venus 32 00:01:38,531 --> 00:01:41,534 and it's going to be making lots of measurements of the surface and interior 33 00:01:41,668 --> 00:01:44,771 and help us sort of understand how the solid planet evolved 34 00:01:44,938 --> 00:01:48,208 and what what's happening on the surface now, how it may be active today. 35 00:01:56,749 --> 00:01:57,417 You know, the 36 00:01:57,417 --> 00:02:00,553 really exciting thing about The DAVINCI mission is that as it goes 37 00:02:00,553 --> 00:02:03,656 through the atmosphere, it's going to be making measurements all the way down. 38 00:02:03,823 --> 00:02:07,827 And so it's going to tell us, you know, with with sort of unprecedented 39 00:02:08,194 --> 00:02:11,998 resolution and information, what each different level is 40 00:02:11,998 --> 00:02:15,235 like in terms of temperature and pressure and composition and things like that. 41 00:02:15,401 --> 00:02:18,171 It's going to tell us a lot more about not the 42 00:02:18,171 --> 00:02:19,973 not only the atmosphere as a whole, 43 00:02:19,973 --> 00:02:22,175 but each level of the atmosphere as it goes down. 44 00:02:22,175 --> 00:02:25,879 And then once it gets below the cloud deck, it's going to be taking pictures 45 00:02:26,379 --> 00:02:26,913 with it. 46 00:02:26,913 --> 00:02:29,916 One of the highest resolution cameras we've sent to Venus yet 47 00:02:30,316 --> 00:02:33,453 and really getting, you know, real pictures of this high of these 48 00:02:33,920 --> 00:02:36,923 these highlands, these tessera, which are some of the oldest surface 49 00:02:36,923 --> 00:02:38,158 areas on the planet. 50 00:02:38,158 --> 00:02:41,628 So it's really going to help us unlock a lot of information about the atmosphere. 51 00:02:51,938 --> 00:02:52,505 You know, 52 00:02:52,505 --> 00:02:55,375 Venus is sort of shrouded in mystery, right? 53 00:02:55,375 --> 00:02:56,643 Like because Venus 54 00:02:56,643 --> 00:02:59,646 is very similar to Earth, but in some ways very different than Earth. 55 00:03:00,680 --> 00:03:02,115 There's more to understand. 56 00:03:02,115 --> 00:03:06,152 You know, our earliest missions to Venus really changed our perception 57 00:03:06,152 --> 00:03:07,754 of what the planet was like. 58 00:03:07,754 --> 00:03:09,989 And so that got us to a place 59 00:03:09,989 --> 00:03:12,525 where we were able to learn a little bit about Venus. 60 00:03:12,525 --> 00:03:16,362 And now that we've been able to take all of that data, analyze that data, use, 61 00:03:16,496 --> 00:03:19,532 you know, combine that data with some of our ground based assets, 62 00:03:19,699 --> 00:03:21,000 we have some fantastic, you know, 63 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:24,003 sort of radio images of Venus and things like that. 64 00:03:24,270 --> 00:03:27,941 We're able to sort of use that in science as an iterative process. 65 00:03:27,941 --> 00:03:30,677 And so we've learned more from our previous missions 66 00:03:30,677 --> 00:03:33,880 and that allows us to sort of make more targeted questions 67 00:03:33,880 --> 00:03:37,951 with our next missions like Da Vinci and Veritas sort of understand more. 68 00:03:38,117 --> 00:03:42,222 You know, we have some ideas about this so we can now have a hypothesis about what 69 00:03:42,455 --> 00:03:45,792 formed the atmosphere, and now we can sort of test those hypotheses. 70 00:03:53,833 --> 00:03:54,234 Yeah. 71 00:03:54,234 --> 00:03:55,868 So Venus, the intense pressure 72 00:03:55,868 --> 00:03:59,105 and heat on the surface of Venus is certainly challenging for 73 00:03:59,105 --> 00:04:02,108 this is going to be certainly challenging for The DAVINCI mission. 74 00:04:02,375 --> 00:04:05,211 The first thing that we have, of course, is that as the probe comes down, 75 00:04:05,211 --> 00:04:08,248 it has a parachute, and the parachute will help slow it down 76 00:04:08,248 --> 00:04:11,251 in that upper atmosphere of Venus, where it's not quite as thick. 77 00:04:11,384 --> 00:04:14,487 And as it comes down, as the atmosphere gets thicker and thicker, 78 00:04:14,487 --> 00:04:17,790 at some point, it will it will it will release that parachute. 79 00:04:18,024 --> 00:04:21,794 And at that point, it's almost like it's less like it's falling through the air 80 00:04:21,794 --> 00:04:24,530 and more like it's sinking because the deeper parts of Venus's 81 00:04:24,530 --> 00:04:27,367 atmosphere are actually more liquid than gas. 82 00:04:27,367 --> 00:04:28,601 And as it starts going down, 83 00:04:28,601 --> 00:04:31,137 the pressure is increasing, the temperature is increasing. 84 00:04:31,137 --> 00:04:34,040 So this probe is about the size of a hula hoop, 85 00:04:34,040 --> 00:04:37,043 and it's made of titanium, which is a very resistant metal. 86 00:04:37,243 --> 00:04:38,611 And so as it's coming down, it's 87 00:04:38,611 --> 00:04:42,715 got this quarter inch of titanium and about an inch thick of insulation. 88 00:04:42,815 --> 00:04:43,683 And it's 89 00:04:43,683 --> 00:04:45,652 the only parts that are being exposed are those 90 00:04:45,652 --> 00:04:47,320 that are actively measuring the atmosphere. 91 00:04:47,320 --> 00:04:50,323 So the rest of it is being protected in that titanium sphere. 92 00:04:50,556 --> 00:04:54,327 And as it comes down and descends, it's making measurements the whole way down 93 00:04:54,327 --> 00:04:58,298 in that and that that titanium and that insulation are protecting 94 00:04:58,298 --> 00:05:02,035 the instruments for as long as possible until we get to the surface. 95 00:05:02,168 --> 00:05:06,205 And ultimately the probe will succumb to Venus's temperature and pressure. 96 00:05:06,372 --> 00:05:08,741 But we hope that we're going to get a lot of science along the way.