An Expedition To Venus Might Be In China’s Future Plans

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According to a top Chinese space official, China is contemplating on a trip to Venus in its planetary exploration ambitions.

In 2020, China launched Tianwen 1, its first interplanetary mission to Mars; the project’s orbiter and Zhurong rover are still operating on Mars.

The term “Tianwen” was derived from an old Chinese poetry, meaning, “questions about the heavens.”

In an interview, released March 7, Wu Weiren also stated that China is contemplating adding Venus to its list of exploratory destinations.

Wu did not provide any further information on the possible mission. Early in the previous decade, however, Chinese scientists proposed an expedition to Venus.

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Undoubtedly, China intends to expand the mission’s scope.

Tianwen 2, 3, and 4 missions are slated to follow the Mars expedition, according to Wu Weiren, the lead designer of China’s lunar exploration program.

China announced in a recent space white paper that it aims to launch a mission to sample an asteroid and visit a comet, a Mars sample-return mission, and a probe to study the Jupiter system, though these missions were not named.

According to a 2014 report, the orbiter mission, which was not chosen for further development work, would have focused on the planet’s atmosphere, ionosphere, and magnetosphere, as well as conducting surveys of its surface and interior structure.

Following the discovery of phosphine, a molecule associated with life processes on Earth, in the Venusian atmosphere in September 2020, the second planet from the sun has become a hot issue.

Three expeditions to the hottest planet in the solar system were announced last year by NASA and the European Space Agency.

China may be the next country to sign up for a journey to Earth’s former twin.

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