Speaker
Description
The ESA EnVision will determine the nature and current state of Venus' geological evolution and its relationship with the atmosphere, to understand how and why Venus and Earth evolved so differently.Perched at the inner edge of the habitable zone, Venus may once have been habitable, with liquid water oceans, before developing the enormous greenhouse warming which renders it uninhabitable today, thus providing a natural laboratory for studying the evolution of habitability. Venus is essential for understanding the links between planetary geophysical evolution and habitability of terrestrial planets from our own Earth to terrestrial planets and exoplanets everywhere.The Envision mission will develop an holistic approach performing high resolution radar mapping from the crust and mantle to atmospheric studies, at both large and regional scales.The spacecraft and its instruments thermal design will be presented, pointing out thermal challenges induced by such a mission. Test activities carried-out at material level to specifically answer the aerobraking phase will be also presented.
