Venus Exploration in the New Human Spaceflight Age
Abstract
An often-overlooked aspect of human missions to Mars is that the optimal path to the Red Planet could include a flyby of Venus. As part of so-called opposition missions, a crewed spacecraft would, after departing Earth, approach Venus en route to Mars. Such Venus flybys would offer unique opportunities to practice deep-space human operations during phases of flight for which a direct return to Earth would be a viable abort option. Indeed, crewed flyby missions to Venus provide a basis for longer-duration human spaceflight activities before committing to longer-duration and lower-launch-cadence missions solely to Mars. During Venus flybys, astronauts bound for Mars could carry out opportunistic "human-in-the-loop" scientific activities, such as controlling an aerial platform or directing in situ sampling by a landed spacecraft for much lower cost than a dedicated crewed mission to Venus. An independent crewed Venus flyby could also serve as a useful systems demonstration mission prior to a first human mission to Mars. With a renewed focus on landing humans on Mars in the 2030s and the formidable challenges still ahead for safe and successful long-duration human spaceflight, the time to consider incorporating Venus on the path to Mars is now.
- Publication:
-
Acta Astronautica
- Pub Date:
- March 2021
- DOI:
- 10.1016/j.actaastro.2020.12.020
- Bibcode:
- 2021AcAau.180..100I
- Keywords:
-
- Venus;
- Mars;
- Human spaceflight;
- Flyby;
- Planetary science;
- Missions