ISRO aims at Venus exploration after Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya L1; here is what we know

Moreover, S Somanath explained the primary objective of conducting a Venus mission.

“Venus is a very interesting planet. It also has an atmosphere. Its atmosphere is so thick. The atmospheric pressure is 100 times that of Earth and it is full of acids. You cannot penetrate the surface. You don’t know if its surface is hard or not,” he said.

The ISRO Chairman added, “Earth could one day be Venus. I don’t know. Maybe 10,000 years later we (Earth) will change our characteristics. Earth was never like this. It was not a habitable place long long back.”

As Venus is the second planet from the Sun and Earth's one of the closest planetary neighbours, it shares similarities with Earth as well. The similarities that have been noticed so far are in terms of size and density, and the planet has been known as the Earth's twin.

Previously many countries have also taken initiatives for Venus missions. The European Space Agency’s Venus Express and Japan's Akatsuki Venus Climate Orbiter, have played a significant role in contributing to our knowledge about this intriguing planet. Apart from that, NASA's Parker Solar Probe has also sent spacecraft for Venus that captured visible light images of its surface in 2021. In 1961, the then USSR became the first nation to successfully launch the Venus exploration mission.