In June 2020 NASA has selected the VERTIAS Discovery mission to Venus for flight. The Venus Emissivity Mapper (VEM) provided by DLR together with the VISAR radar system provided by JPL are the core payload of the mission. VEM is the first flight instrument designed with a focus on mapping the surface of Venus using atmospheric windows around 1 μm wavelength. It will provide a global map of surface composition by observing with six narrow band filters from 0.86 to 1.18 μm. Continuous observation of Venus’ thermal emission will place tight constraints on current day volcanic activity. Eight additional channels provide measurements of atmospheric water vapor abundance as well as cloud microphysics and dynamics and permit accurate correction of atmospheric interference on the surface data. Combining VEM with a high-resolution radar mapper on the NASA VERITAS and ESA EnVision missions will provide key insights in the divergent evolution of Venus. After several years of pre-development including the setup of a laboratory prototype the implementation for flight has started with the qualification of the flight detectors, the review of all requirements flowdowns as well as the finalizing of spacecraft interfaces.
The Venus emissivity mapper: implementation for flight on the NASA VERITAS mission
Infrared Remote Sensing and Instrumentation XXX ; 2022 ; San Diego,California,United States
Proc. SPIE ; 12233
2022-09-30
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
German Aerospace Center (DLR) | 2019
|The Venus radar mapper mission
NTRS | 1984
|The Venus Radar Mapper (VRM) mission
NTRS | 1984
|The Venus Radar Mapper (VRM) mission
AIAA | 1984
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