WEBVTT FILE 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.