The EnVision mission to Venus will map the planet's optical, spectral, and radar properties.
The EnVision mission to Venus will map the planet's optical, spectral, and radar properties.
However, before beginning work, the van-sized spacecraft must "aerobrake."
For up to two years, it will lower its orbit by thousands of passages through the planet's hot, thick atmosphere.
A one-of-a-kind ESA facility is currently testing candidate spacecraft materials to ensure that they can safely withstand the difficult process of atmospheric surfing.
Venus Express, EnVision's predecessor spacecraft, performed experimental aerobraking during the final months of its mission in 2014.
ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter used aerobraking for the first time in 2017 to lower its orbit around the Red Planet over an 11-month period.
This was an unknown phenomenon during the first decades of the space age.
It was only when early Space Shuttle flights returned from low orbit in the early 1980s that engineers received a shock.
The culprit was discovered to be highly reactive atomic oxygen—individual oxygen atoms on the outskirts of the atmosphere.
All missions under 1,000 km must now be designed to withstand atomic oxygen.