ISRO opens archival data on Venus for scientific analysis
BENGALURU: After throwing open its Chandrayaan-3 data for research and analysis, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Thursday announced the opportunity for researchers to utilise the archival data of Venus for scientific analysis.
The Venus Orbiter Mission (VOM) is scheduled for launch in March 2028. The objective of India’s first Venus mission is to study the planet’s surface and subsurface geology, analyse atmospheric processes and composition, investigate the ionosphere and its dynamics, examine the interaction of Venus with solar radiation, and understand the evolutionary differences between Earth and Venus.
ISRO is working on developing the spacecraft and payloads for orbiting Venus, considered Earth’s sister planet, for the study. In order to promote, strengthen, and increase the scientific user community for VOM, ISRO has invited researchers for detailed analysis and promotion of it.
The research proposals have been invited under five research areas of interest: Venusian morphology, topography and subsurface studies, geological mapping, mineralogy and surface composition of Venus, Venusian atmosphere structure, dynamics and composition, Venusian ionosphere and solar wind interaction, and modeling of Venusian atmospheres and ionospheres.
The spacecraft will include S-band synthetic aperture radar, Venus Advanced Radar for topside ionosphere and subsurface sounding, a thermal camera, a cloud monitoring camera, an atmospheric spectropolarimeter, solar occultation photometry for vertical profiling of aerosols and thin clouds in the Venusian atmosphere, and a retarding potential analyser.
People can submit their proposals to the office of the Director of Science Programme Office in Antariksh Bhavan, Bengaluru, or can send an email. The proposals will be reviewed and funded. The research is for a three-year duration.