Exciting Plans for Venus Mission Aiming to Discover Alien Life
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Chapter 1: The Launch of a New Era in Space Exploration
Rocket Lab has experienced moderate achievements with its compact Electron rocket since its inaugural flight three years ago. Despite a few challenges, this small yet capable rocket is now targeting a highly relevant mission. Rocket Lab may soon become the first entity to investigate the intriguing recent biosignatures on Venus.
The recent identification of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus is a captivating finding. While it doesn't definitively prove the existence of extraterrestrial life, it raises many questions. Phosphine should not naturally occur on Venus unless it is being produced by living organisms. The current goal is to discover whether there are indeed alien entities floating in Venus's clouds or if an unknown chemical reaction is responsible for the phosphine's presence. To truly answer this, a mission to Venus is essential, and Rocket Lab claims it can achieve this at a fraction of the cost. Launching a probe using the Electron rocket could cost between $10 and $20 million, significantly lower than NASA’s Discovery missions, which are limited to $450 million.
The Electron rocket, classified as a small-lift rocket, has a payload capacity of only a few hundred pounds, sufficient to transport Rocket Lab’s Photon satellite. This spacecraft will play a crucial role in Rocket Lab's ambitious mission to Venus planned for 2023. The Electron will launch Photon into orbit, allowing it to journey to Venus with its Curie monopropellant engine. Upon reaching the planet, the satellite will be traveling too quickly to achieve a stable orbit—about 24,600 mph (39,600 km/h)—and will instead conduct a flyby to deploy a probe into the atmosphere.
The mission to Venus has been in development for some time, but Rocket Lab's founder and CEO, Peter Beck, notes that the team has been collaborating with scientists involved in the phosphine discovery to enhance the mission's data-gathering potential. These critical signals were detected in a specific layer of Venus's atmosphere, where the temperature and pressure levels could potentially support life. On the surface, however, Venus experiences a crushing pressure 100 times that of Earth and scorching temperatures that can melt lead.
Understanding how Venus transformed from a planet that may have once been Earth-like to the extreme environment we see today is invaluable. This insight is part of why Rocket Lab initiated the planning for this mission, but the urgency has intensified following the phosphine discovery. Beck asserts that Venus is "well and truly undervalued," a sentiment that seems increasingly accurate. Initially skeptical about the chances of finding life on Venus, Beck now holds a more optimistic view regarding the mission's potential. Depending on future developments, Rocket Lab may even launch additional probes.
This video, titled "The First Private Space Mission to Venus | The Space Show," discusses Rocket Lab’s innovative approach to exploring Venus and the mission's significance.
In this video, "Finding Alien Life. A Step-By-Step Instruction," experts outline the methodologies for searching for extraterrestrial life, providing context for Rocket Lab's mission.