Welcome to hell? The allure of Venus
A fleet of robot spaceships is to descend on Venus in a few years and begin probing the most inhospitable world in the solar system. One craft will drop through the planet’s crushingly dense – and searingly hot – atmosphere while two others will orbit over the thick, acidic clouds that cover Venus and use sophisticated radar telescopes to survey the terrain beneath them.
Such scrutiny represents a remarkable renewal of interest in Earth’s nearest planetary neighbour. For more than a decade, US and European space agencies have ignored the planet – only for three new Venus missions to be announced within days of one another at the beginning of June.
Håkan Svedhem, former project manager for Europe’s
