On June 10, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced that they had selected their next mission to Venus — EnVision. The mission, set to operate alongside NASA’s newly announced DAVINCI+ and VERITAS missions, will study Earth’s sister planet in extreme detail.
Selected as the agency’s fifth medium-class mission in their Cosmic Vision program, EnVision will use a suite of specially designed radars and instruments to map the surface of Venus and understand how the planet evolved so much differently from Earth. Additionally, EnVision hopes to answer questions regarding Venus’ past, present, and future geologic and tectonic activity, and how it may effect Venus’ environment.