P026-0001
Deep Atmosphere of Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging Plus (DAVINCI+): Discovering a New Venus via a Flyby, Probe, Orbiter Mission

Wednesday, 9 December 2020
Poster
James Brian Garvin1, Stephanie Getty1, Giada N Arney1, Natasha Johnson2, Charles Malespin1, Christopher R Webster3, Michael A Ravine4, Ralph D Lorenz5, Walter S. Kiefer6, Sushil K Atreya7, David H Grinspoon8, Martha S Gilmore9, Justin Filiberto10, Bruce A Campbell11, Michael Amato1, Michael Sekerak12 and John Cavanaugh1, (1)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (2)Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (3)NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (4)Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, CA, United States, (5)JHU / APL, Laurel, MD, United States, (6)Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, TX, United States, (7)University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI, United States, (8)Planetary Science Institute Washington - PSI, Washington, DC, United States, (9)Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, United States, (10)Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Carbondale, IL, United States, (11)Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC, United States, (12)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, United States
Abstract:
One of NASA’s next possible mission concepts within the Discovery Program is “DAVINCI+”, designed to resolve major scientific questions remaining about Venus and exo-Venus analogs. This ground-breaking mission is under final review by NASA as of late 2020. It would develop a "Venus observing system" architecture via its flyby, probe, orbiter approach.

DAVINCI+’s planned observations provide definitive atmospheric chemistry measurements from the top of the clouds to the near-surface at a quality typical of landed in situ instruments. Its descent imaging system will acquire over 100 high-sensitivity images in the near-IR atmospheric window from ~ 30 km to the surface, providing compositional mapping and 3D topographic data for pristine complex-ridged terrain in Alpha Regio. Together with the descent probe measurements acquired during a ~ 60 minute transit to the surface, the mission will conduct two remote-sensing Venus flybys with its UV, NIR imaging system to explore the upper atmosphere and night-side IR emissivity. After the probe operations, the carrier spacecraft will return to Venus and enter orbit for dayside UV imaging together with night-side Near IR emissivity imaging of major highlands. These data will provide a foundation for future missions to Venus, including orbiters by ESA (EnVision) and possible Lander-Balloon-orbiters by Russia and partners (Venera-D), plus future flagships.

DAVINCI+ directly address questions about Venus that have perplexed the community for decades, and which have been stumbling blocks in contrasting the evolution of Earth, Mars, and Venus. The history of water will be addressed via definitive measurements of D/H at multiple altitudes, with links to the role of any past oceans. The origin and evolution of the atmosphere will be investigated via critical noble gases including Xenon, plus a suite of trace gas species every ~200 meters in the sub-cloud atmosphere and into the deep super-critical CO2 region. Near IR imaging will provide compositional constraints at spatial scales as small as ~ 4 - 50 m for Alpha Regio, connecting local spatial scales to those that will also be explored at ~ 50 km scales from flyby and orbit. DAVINCI+’s suite of measurements will enable Venus-like exoplanets to be better understood, as a new era of exoplanet astrophysics emerges via JWST and beyond.

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