India’s Venus Orbiter Mission: Shukrayaan

India’s Venus Orbiter Mission: Shukrayaan

¨  India’s Venus orbiter mission is called Shukrayaan and it is a planned interplanetary mission to Venus.

¨     The mission involves international collaboration with Sweden.

¨     A total of 19 scientific payloads will be carried on the spacecraft.

¨     Sweden has joined the mission through a formal scientific agreement.

¨     The Swedish Institute of Space Physics will develop the Venusian Neutrals Analyser (VNA).

¨     The VNA will study interactions between solar charged particles and Venus’s atmosphere and exosphere.

¨     The mission was approved by the Union Cabinet in 2024 with an estimated cost of ₹1,236 crore.

¨     The spacecraft will be launched using the LVM-3 rocket.

¨     It will first enter an elliptical orbit before moving towards Venus.

¨     The final Venus orbit will have a periapsis of 500 km and an apoapsis of 60,000 km.

¨ The mission aims to study Venus’s dense atmosphere, volcanic surface, and cloud dynamics.

¨     It will also study super-rotating clouds on Venus.

¨     Scientists will examine whether Venus once had conditions suitable for liquid water.

¨     The mission will help understand how Venus became a greenhouse planet.