VERITAS

Studying Venus from atmosphere to core, VERITAS will seek answers to many of the lingering questions about Earth's sister world. Does Venus have Earth-like continents that formed in the presence of water? Is its volcanism continuous, or does it come and go? Does the planet have plate tectonics? The mission will provide powerful insights about the interior of Venus that help us better understand our own planet. It will also help researchers refine models of rocky exoplanets – planets outside our solar system.

Science results from VERITAS will lay a foundation for other NASA and European missions planned for the next decade, while also identifying high-value landing sites and targets for focused observations by future missions.

VERITAS is a solar-powered Venus orbiter with many similarities to NASA's MAVEN spacecraft at Mars. After arriving at Venus, the mission will use aerobraking to help slow the spacecraft and reshape its orbit. Once it completes aerobraking, VERITAS will circle the planet in a near-polar orbit, at its final science altitude of 250 miles (400 kilometers).

VERITAS will carry a new technology demonstration to Venus, in the form of the Deep Space Atomic Clock-2. This ultra-precise timekeeping technology will help enhance autonomy in future spacecraft, as well as future radio science observations.

The VERITAS mission is led by Principal Investigator Sue Smrekar, and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. The national space agencies of Italy, Germany, and France are also making major contributions to enable and enhance the mission.

The VERITAS team worked together for nearly a decade prior to the mission being selected for flight by NASA, proposing it a total of three times (twice for the Discovery program, and once for the New Frontiers program). Now, as VERITAS moves forward, the international collection of experts on the science team will use opportunities throughout the mission to train the next generation of planetary science leaders.