Exploring Venus: Major scientific issues and directions

Abstract

Venus has been a prime target of space exploration since the launch of Venera-1 in 1961. In 1962, Mariner 2 determined that the surface of Venus is hot, providing the first confirmation of its immense greenhouse effect. Venus has now been visited by numerous flybys, orbiters, atmospheric probes, landers, and balloons! Magellan's radar pierced the planet-encircling clouds to provide a global map of the Venus surface. Table 1 lists the chronology of Venus missions. Despite the numerous missions, the Venus environment provides a difficult target, and many significant questions remain unanswered. The state of current knowledge, the open questions, and ways to address them are discussed in the following chapters.